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Motives and Incentives for Joining Forest Owner Associations in Estonia

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Abstract

The development of private ownership is an important outcome of structural changes for the whole economy as well as for the forestry sector in Estonia. Cooperation between forest owners has been seen as one possibility for increasing the provision of various forest-related benefits and goods. Yet the extent of cooperation between forest owners is still not at a sufficient level, but the reasons have not been extensively studied. The authors’ aim was to find out the key determinants for forest owners to join a forest owner association and to explore how cooperation between owners could be increased. Survey data were used to divide the respondents into two groups according to whether they were members of forest owners associations or not. It was found that one key aspect is the size of the forest property—association members usually manage larger forest areas than non-members. In addition, the members tend to be more active and consistent in forest management activities than non-members. Also there is potential towards cooperation within non-members as their plans for the future are much more targeted. Although there are limits to voluntary cooperation, a huge potential for Estonian private forest owners could be realised by diversifying forest owner association activities and services to meet the different expectations of forest owners.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Prof. Margaret Shannon, Andreas Schuck and all the EFI Winter-Summer School 2011 participants, lecturers and organizers for providing an excellent opportunity to discuss this paper in its various steps of development. Also the valuable comments from the anonymous reviewers were of great help to improve the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Management, Institute of Forestry and Rural Engineering, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia

    Priit Põllumäe & Henn Korjus

  2. Institute of Forestry and Rural Engineering, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia

    Paavo Kaimre

  3. Södra Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia

    Tarmo Vahter

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  1. Priit Põllumäe
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  2. Henn Korjus
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  3. Paavo Kaimre
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Correspondence to Priit Põllumäe.

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Põllumäe, P., Korjus, H., Kaimre, P. et al. Motives and Incentives for Joining Forest Owner Associations in Estonia. Small-scale Forestry 13, 19–33 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-013-9237-3

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