Improving the Representation of Climate Change Adaptation Behaviour in New Zealand’s Forest Growing Sector

Grace B. Villamor, Andrew Dunningham, Philip Stahlmann-Brown and Peter W. Clinton
Additional contact information
Grace B. Villamor: Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute, Ltd.) Titokorangi Drive, Private Bag 3020, Rotorua 3046, New Zealand
Andrew Dunningham: Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute, Ltd.) Titokorangi Drive, Private Bag 3020, Rotorua 3046, New Zealand
Philip Stahlmann-Brown: Manaaki Whenua—Landcare Research, 17 Whitmore Street, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
Peter W. Clinton: Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute, Ltd.) Titokorangi Drive, Private Bag 3020, Rotorua 3046, New Zealand

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: To provide the forest industry with a better understanding of alternatives to simulate future adaptation pathways under evolving climatic and socio-economic uncertainty, we review the literature on how adaptation decisions are modelled in the context of plantation forests. This review leads to the conclusion that the representation of adaptation behaviour and decision-making remain very limited in most of the agent-based models in the forestry sector. Moreover, theoretical frameworks used to understand the adaptation behaviour of forest owners are also lacking. In this paper, we propose the application of protection motivation theory (PMT) as a framework to understand the motivation of forest owners to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on their forest plantations. Furthermore, the use of PMT allows factors affecting the maladaptive behaviour of forest owners to be examined. A survey of New Zealand foresters showed that less than 10% of smallholder forest owners adopted adaptation strategies. This result highlights the importance of addressing the research question “what motivates forest owners to take risk reduction measures?” Exploring this question is crucial to the future success of the New Zealand forestry sector and we suggest that it can be addressed by using PMT. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for an agent-based model as an alternative to simulating adaptation pathways for forest plantations in New Zealand.

Keywords: agent-based model; maladaptation; plantation forests; protection motivation theory; risk; social psychological behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/3/364/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/3/364/ (text/html)

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:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:3:p:364-:d:762457

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().