Seeing the owner behind the trees: A typology of small-scale private woodland owners in England

Julie Urquhart and Paul Courtney

Forest Policy and Economics, 2011, vol. 13, issue 7, 535-544

Abstract: The diversity of woodland ownership in England has increased in recent decades to encompass a wide range of non-financially-oriented owners, many with little previous experience of woodland management. With public benefits such as environmental conservation, amenity and carbon sequestration being increasingly emphasised in forest policy agendas, there is a need to understand the willingness and ability of traditional and new owner groups to deliver such benefits. A quantitative typology of private woodland owners was developed through a self-completion postal survey administered in three study areas in England: the Lake District, Cornwall and the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Owners were classified using Factor, Cluster and Discriminant analysis into six owner types: the Individualist, the Multifunctional Owner, the Private Consumer, the Conservationist, the Investor and the Amenity Owner. Of all owner types, Multifunctional Owners are the most likely to deliver a range of public benefits, while Individualists are the least amenable to subsidies to encourage public good delivery. A range of policy options will be required to reflect to diverse range of objectives and goals of woodland owners, including advisory services, incentives and market mechanisms.

Keywords: Private; woodland; Public; benefits; Amenity; Classification; Attitudes; Motivations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934111000785
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:13:y:2011:i:7:p:535-544

Access Statistics for this article

Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott

More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().