Collective forestry regimes to enhance transition to climate smart forestry
Stanislava Brnkaľáková, Mariana Melnykovych, Maria Nijnik, Carla Barlagne, Marian Pavelka, Andrej Udovč, Michal V. Marek, Urban Kováč, Tatiana Kluvánková
Abstract
Abstract As European mountain forests are a significant world carbon stock and sequester, they have a prominent position in climate policies and climate smart forestry (CSF) implementation. However, forest ecosystem services (ES) that are public or common goods (i.e., of carbon sequestration) face a traditional social dilemma of individual versus collective interests, which often generate conflicts, and result in the overuse of ES and resource depletion. In this article, we elaborate a conceptual analytical framework and use it in case studies selected in European mountain areas to analyse the potential of socio‐ecological systems to develop CSF. Collective self‐organized forestry regimes, as a form of social innovation, are the main focus, compared with centrally governed state regimes and forest management practices in municipal forests. A conceptual framework to analyse collective self‐organized regimes and compare these with other CSF‐applicable forestry regimes is elaborated using a mixed‐method approach, centered around the estimation of carbon sequestration potential. The results indicate that collective self‐organized forestry regimes can play a role in fostering the transition of European forestry towards CSF.