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Policies Affecting Forestry Entrepreneurship

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Abstract

Many demand and supply-side policies impede or foster forestry entrepreneurship. A study was conducted to consolidate existing knowledge on policies influencing forestry entrepreneurship in Finland, Norway, Japan, Australia, the Philippines and the USA, and to draw conclusions on these impeding and fostering factors. From the country studies it was difficult to find common structures on policies affecting forestry entrepreneurship. This is understandable because most policies in forestry are aimed at supporting sustainable forest management, wood production and ecological services of the forests rather than entrepreneurship as such. Despite the high variety of policies applied in the study countries, it can be concluded that strict public control on forests’ use and management potentially impedes forestry entrepreneurship. While these policies assist to correct market failure and to promote sustainability of forest management, they may also result into unnecessary and ineffective regulations that limit the opportunities for forestry entrepreneurship. A common feature promoting the demand for forestry entrepreneurship in some of the countries studied is the strong emphasis on forestry cooperatives, which were important institutions to support small-scale forestry entrepreneurship. In many study countries, different ad hoc programs are implemented to find new economic and entrepreneurial opportunities aside from the current use of wood and forests. Subsidies and tax incentives are commonly applied to reduce risks from making forestry investments or otherwise increase the economic return from timber production.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Forestry, University of Joensuu, Box 111, 80101, Joensuu, Finland

    Anssi Niskanen

  2. Department of Economics and Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Box 5003, 1432, Aas, Norway

    Anders Lunnan

  3. The Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, Box 115, 1431, Aas, Norway

    Anders Lunnan

  4. Faculty of Agriculture, Ehime University, 3-5-7 Tarumi, Matsuyama, 790-8566, Japan

    Ikuo Ota

  5. Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Washington State University, PO Box 646410, Pullman, WA, 99164-6410, USA

    Keith Blatner

  6. School of Natural and Rural Systems Management, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, 4072, Australia

    John Herbohn

  7. National Association of Forest Industries, The University of Melbourne, 24 Napier Close, Deakin, ACT, 2600, Australia

    Lyndall Bull

  8. School of Forest and Ecosystem Science, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Ian Ferguson

  9. Department of Sustainability and Environment, PO Box 500, Level 3, 8 Nicholson Street, East Melbourne, VIC, 3002, Australia

    Gordon M. Hickey

Authors
  1. Anssi Niskanen
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  2. Anders Lunnan
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  3. Ikuo Ota
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  4. Keith Blatner
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  5. John Herbohn
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  6. Lyndall Bull
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  7. Ian Ferguson
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  8. Gordon M. Hickey
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Correspondence to Anssi Niskanen.

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Niskanen, A., Lunnan, A., Ota, I. et al. Policies Affecting Forestry Entrepreneurship. Small-scale Forestry 6, 233–255 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-007-9025-z

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