A1 Journal article (refereed)
No evidence of systematic pre-emptive loggings after notifying landowners of their lands’ conservation potential (2021)

Nieminen, E., Salovaara, K., Halme, P., & Kotiaho, J. S. (2021). No evidence of systematic pre-emptive loggings after notifying landowners of their lands’ conservation potential. Ambio, 50(2), 465-474. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01354-4

JYU authors or editors

Nieminen, Eini
Halme, Panu
Kotiaho, Janne

Publication details

All authors or editors: Nieminen, Eini; Salovaara, Kalle; Halme, Panu; Kotiaho, Janne Sakari

Journal or series: Ambio

ISSN: 0044-7447

eISSN: 1654-7209

Publication year: 2021

Volume: 50

Issue number: 2

Pages range: 465-474

Publisher: Springer

Publication country: Netherlands

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01354-4

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/70962

Abstract

Landowners can intentionally impair biodiversity values occurring on their land to pre-empt biodiversity protection. This often leads to significant negative effects on biodiversity. We studied whether landowners in Finland engaged in pre-emptive loggings after they were notified that their wooded mires are candidate sites for a mire protection program. After the notification, harvesting rates of the candidate wooded mires were significantly lower compared to harvesting rates of similar but non-candidate wooded mires. Annual and monthly harvesting rates indicated that notifying landowners of the conservation potential did not launch systematic pre-emptive logging behavior. Nevertheless, part of the candidate wooded mires were logged, so some landowners place more weight on other values than the biodiversity ones. Pre-emptive behavior has been observed in other studies suggesting that many country- or system-specific factors such as cultural background or level of compensation can affect landowners’ behavior.

Keywords: environmental policy; forest policy; forest conservation; mire conservation; environmental programmes; loggings; land ownership; landowners