Small scale forest owners’ economic, social and environmental responsibilities - literature review, discussion about responsibilities and results from case studies

Taking responsibility refers to balancing economic, social, and environmental concerns. Based on a short literature review about corporate responsibility and research about small scale forest owners this paper discusses small scale forest owners’ responsibilities for achieving a true sustainable forest management as well as stakeholders’ expectations on the owners, and potential conflicts between owners and stakeholders and between stakeholders. Results from an explorative study are reported. Interviews have been made with ten small scale forest owners, Swedish Forest Agency’s local office holders and a representative from WWF. The results show that the interviewed small scale forest owners take economic, environmental and social responsibilities but stress their personal economic responsibility. However, no conflict exists between economic and environmental responsibilities. The economic benefits for the owners for taking more environmental och social responsibility are small. The interviewed stakeholders expect the small scale forest owners to take responsibilities but that the weight the interviewed owners put to their wishes is low. This is an explorative study and a broader study is needed for testing the presented hypotheses.