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Willingness of Private Forest Owners to Supply Woody Biomass in Croatia

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Abstract

Renewable energy sources have received significant attention in European countries as a result of increasing dependence on energy imports and concerns over high prices of fuels and climate change. Although private forests in Croatia account for less than one quarter of all forests, they may play an important role in woody biomass energy production, due to their underutilized exploitation. The objective of this paper is to identify the willingness of private forest owners to supply woody biomass and to understand how this willingness is affected by certain owner, management and forest property characteristics. A survey conducted in Croatia in 2012 of a random sample of 350 private forest owners shows that almost half of them were willing to supply woody biomass. A random utility model was used to determine the factors influencing private forest owners’ willingness to supply woody biomass. The results showed that willingness to supply woody biomass was influenced by property size, management objectives (production of fuel wood for personal needs and using the forest for outdoor recreation), cooperation with other forest owners and owner age. In order to enhance woody biomass mobilization from private forests it is important to identify the owners who are willing to supply it and to provide them with financial and administrative support using a mix of developed forest policy instruments.

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Notes

  1. In our study the FAO definition of woody biomass was used: “the mass of woody part (stem, bark, branches, twigs) of trees, alive or dead, shrubs and bushes, excluding stumps and roots, foliage, flowers and seeds”.

  2. The project “Research into Organization of Private Forest Owners' Interest Associations in the Western Balkan Region—PRIFORT” was financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management of Republic of Austria.

  3. The project “Opportunities for Wood Energy Production from Small-scale Forests in the South-Eastern Europe Region—WESSPROFOR” financed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and coordinated by the European Forest Institute.

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Acknowledgments

This study was conducted within WESSPROFOR project, which arose in the context of the project “Forest Policy Education and Research in the SEE regions (FOPER)”. The FOPER project was funded by Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and coordinated by European Forest Institute. The authors of this study are very grateful for the above mentioned financial support. Also, we gratefully acknowledge Karlo Beljan, PhD, who carried out the survey and provided helpful feedback, and to Silvija Krajter Ostoić, PhD, for reviewing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division for International Scientific Cooperation in Southeast Europe – EFISEE, Croatian Forest Research Institute, Zajčeva 28, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Marta Curman

  2. Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb, Svetošimunska 25, 10002, Zagreb, Croatia

    Stjepan Posavec

  3. Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot 83, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Špela Pezdevšek Malovrh

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  1. Marta Curman
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  2. Stjepan Posavec
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Correspondence to Marta Curman.

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Curman, M., Posavec, S. & Pezdevšek Malovrh, Š. Willingness of Private Forest Owners to Supply Woody Biomass in Croatia. Small-scale Forestry 15, 551–567 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-016-9339-9

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