The Influence and Potential Use of Values in Swedish Forestry - From the perspective of private forest owners and interactive methods
Abstract: The starting point of this study is the perspective of Swedish private forest owners. From that point of view, I aimed to discover the possible influences of values on climate mitigation and biodiversity in Swedish forests. The focus of both climate mitigation and biodiversity is of great importance as these are two major crises the world faces, and yet solutions are often seen as conflicting. By integrating both issues and by letting forest owners prioritize values with both issues in mind, a better understanding of the values behind choices made in the forest could be achieved. The methodological approach is qualitative, and the methods used have been go-along interviews and Q methodology. Through these methods and a theoretical framework of the IPBES value typology and interactive governance the aim has been to answer questions of the values private forest owners hold in relation to their forests, how this impacts the choice of management methods and concern for climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation. I have also looked at the similarities and differences in values between those who use alternative methods and those who use clear-cutting methods and how the values are influenced by Swedish forest governance. The results show that the forest owners who held anthropocentric values tended to prioritize production and carbon substitution in their forest. The owners who held more ecocentric values prioritized biodiversity conservation and carbon storage. Relational values held by anthropocentric owners did however mean they cared for biodiversity and nature’s own right of existence even though they felt obliged to prioritize production because of societal demands. It suggests that by encouraging intrinsic values connected to relational values in the production forest, steps towards evening out the built-in conflict between climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation in the Swedish forest could be made.
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