Involving private forest owners in the sustainable use of forests: a case study for Flanders, Belgium

Abstract

The  main features of the forest landscape in Flanders (Belgium) are the relative  small area    forested (only 10% of the land), the large proportion of privately owned  forests (70%) and the    high degree of fragmentation of these forests (average owned area of 1 ha).  This situation    makes the implementation of a policy aiming at the promotion of sustainable  management and    conservation of natural values in Flemish private forests extremely  difficult.    The Flemish forest administration prepared a concrete strategy towards a  close to nature type    of management in public forests. It was decided to promote this type of  forest management also in private forests, but without making it compulsory. As a consequence, other strategies had to    be found to involve private forest owners into a more sustainable forest  management. The aim    of this paper is to show some examples of such strategies, their success  and their failure. The    findings might be inspiring for regions with recently privatized forest  resources. In this regard,    the specific opportunities of both private and public initiatives should be  stressed. Effective    sustainability of forest resources will be reached in those circumstances  where initiatives are    based on trust, communication and stakeholder management. Valuable  bottom-up approaches    arising from the private owners themselves should be especially  strenghtened.