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Plantations and social conflict: exploring the differences between small-scale and large-scale plantation forestry

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Abstract

Commercial afforestation of agricultural land is often associated with social conflict over the perceived environmental, economic and social impacts of the plantations being established. One of the most common solutions suggested to this conflict is a shift from large-scale afforestation by companies and government agencies to small-scale afforestation by individual landholders. Small-scale afforestation by farmers is argued by many to have more positive and fewer negative impacts than large-scale afforestation by non-farmers. However, few studies have examined whether small-scale afforestation is associated with less social conflict than large-scale afforestation. This paper reports results of a recent study that compared afforestation conflicts in two regions: County Leitrim in the Republic of Ireland and the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Considerable afforestation has occurred in both regions in recent decades, and both have also experienced major shifts in the scale and ownership of the plantations being established over time. For both regions, establishment of small-scale farm forest plantations was found to be associated with considerably less social conflict than establishment of large-scale plantations by non-farmers. Some tentative explanations may be given for this pattern, based on comparisons between the two case study regions.

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Notes

  1. While the world’s estimated 186.73 M ha of plantations constituted only 5% of global forest cover in 2000, they supplied an estimated 35% of global roundwood supplies, forecast to rise to 44% by 2020 (FAO 2001).

  2. The comparability issues are due to differences in definitions used by the FAO when gathering data about plantations at different times (FAO 2001).

  3. FAO (2001) defined plantations as: ‘Forest stands established by planting or/and seeding in the process of afforestation or reforestation. They are either: (i) of introduced species (all planted stands), or (ii) intensively managed stands of indigenous species, which meet all the following criteria: one or two species at plantation, even age class, regular spacing.’

  4. Concerns and conflict have been documented in nations and regions including Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Finland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Noumea, Palestine, Paraguay, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam (see for example Friends of the Earth n.d., Le Heron and Roche 1985; Lowe et al. 1986; Tompkins 1986; Mather and Murray 1988; Neeson 1991; Cohen 1993; Groome 1993; Lara and Veblen 1993; Pereira 1993; Christensen 1994; Marchak 1995; Selby and Petajisto 1995; Carrere and Lohmann 1996; Robbins 1998; Spinelli 1998; WRM 1999; Garcia Perez and Groome 2000; Linnard 2000; Williams 2000; Elands and Wiersum 2001; Tewari 2001; Tonts et al. 2001; Wilkinson and Drielsma 2001; FAO 2002; Lang 2002; Schirmer 2002; Barlow and Cocklin 2003; Cossalter and Pye-Smith 2003).

  5. Note that while small-scale and large-scale afforestation are often argued to have different social impacts, some recent research suggests that large-scale afforestation in some Australian regions has not been associated with an increased rate of loss of rural population or employment in rural areas (Schirmer et al. 2005a, b). It is important to emphasise that the impacts discussed in this paper (both positive and negative) are perceived impacts, and no attempt is made in this document to assess the validity of the differing perceptions held by different groups about the positive and negative impacts of plantations.

  6. The Leitrim Observer is the only local paper for Co Leitrim and provides the primary source of local news in the region.

  7. The Albany Advertiser is the primary source of local news in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.

  8. A fourth approach was also utilised, in which the overall intensity of conflict as measured by intensity of media reporting was recorded and compared to the scale of afforestation occurring. However, this approach was difficult to utilise because the shift to small-scale or large-scale afforestation in each case study region typically occurred at the same time as a range of other changes which are equally likely to have influenced the path of conflict over afforestation, while the first three approaches allowed more meaningful identification of the influence of the scale of afforestation.

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  1. School of Resources, Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Jacki Schirmer

  2. Cooperative Research Centre for Forestry, College Road, Sandy Bay, Tasmania, 7005, Australia

    Jacki Schirmer

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  1. Jacki Schirmer
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Schirmer, J. Plantations and social conflict: exploring the differences between small-scale and large-scale plantation forestry. Small-scale Forestry 6, 19–33 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-007-9001-7

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