Riparian buffer zones in production forests create unequal costs among forest owners

Sammanfattning

Riparian buffer zones (RBZs) are an important instrument for environmental policies for water and biodiversity protection in managed forests. We investigate the variation of the cost of implementing RBZs within different property size classes across the size range of non-industrial forest owner properties in Southern Sweden. Using the Heureka PlanWise decision support system, we quantified the cost of setting aside RBZs or applying alternative management in them, as the relative loss of harvest volume and of net present value per property. We did this for multiple simulated as well as real-world property distributions. The variation of cost distribution among small properties was 4.2-6.9 times higher than among large properties. The interproperty cost inequality decreased non-linearly with increasing property size and levelled off from around 200 ha. We conclude that RBZs, due to the irregular distribution of streams, cause highly unequal financial consequences for owners, with some small property owners bearing a disproportionally high cost. This adds to previous studies showing how environmental considerations differentially affect property owners. We recommend decision makers to stimulate the uptake of RBZs by alleviating these inequalities between forest owners by including appropriate cost sharing or compensation mechanisms in their design.

Nyckelord

Forest management; Riparian buffer zone; Property size; Distributional fairness; Forest policy

Publicerad i

European Journal of Forest Research
2024, volym: 143, nummer: 3, sidor: 1035-1046
Utgivare: SPRINGER

SLU författare

• Lidberg, William

  • Institutionen för skogens ekologi och skötsel, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Trubins, Renats

  • Institutionen för sydsvensk skogsvetenskap, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Associerade SLU-program

SLU Skogsskadecentrum

Globala målen (SDG)

SDG10 Minska ojämlikhet
SDG15 Ekosystem och biologisk mångfald

UKÄ forskningsämne

Skogsvetenskap

Publikationens identifierare

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-024-01657-1

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/140706