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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2012

Forest Stakeholder Participation in Improving Game Habitat in Swedish Forests

Ezebilo, Eugene Ejike

Abstract

Although in Sweden the simultaneous use of forests for timber production and game hunting are both of socioeconomic importance it often leads to conflicting interests. This study examines forest stakeholder participation in improving game habitat to increase hunting opportunities as well as redistribute game activities in forests to help reduce browsing damage in valuable forest stands. The data for the study were collected from a nationwide survey that involved randomly selected hunters and forest owners in Sweden. An ordered logit model was used to account for possible factors influencing the respondents' participation in improving game habitat. The results showed that on average, forest owning hunters were more involved in improving game habitat than non-hunting forest owners. The involvement of non-forest owning hunters was intermediate between the former two groups. The respondents' participation in improving game habitat were mainly influenced by factors such as the quantity of game meat obtained, stakeholder group, forests on hunting grounds, the extent of risk posed by game browsing damage to the economy of forest owners, importance of bagging game during hunting, and number of hunting days. The findings will help in designing a more sustainable forest management strategy that integrates timber production and game hunting in forests.

Keywords

forest management; game hunting; stakeholder participation; sustainability; timber production

Published in

Sustainability
2012, Volume: 4, number: 7, pages: 1580-1595
Publisher: MDPI AG

    Associated SLU-program

    SLU Future Forests

    Sustainable Development Goals

    SDG15 Life on land
    SDG12 Responsible consumption and production

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Social Psychology
    Forest Science
    Economics

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su4071580

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/60060