By Jenny Friman, Therese Bjärstig, Sabrina Dressel, Brian Danley, Nils Droste, and Jayne Glass
This Plain Language Summary is published in advance of the paper discussed. Please check back soon for a link to the full paper.
Traditionally, Swedish forestry focuses heavily on clear-cutting to supply large pulp and paper mills. However, a growing number of forest owners and entrepreneurs are exploring diverse ways to use forests that provide income while also supporting nature and rural communities. We describe this as multiple-use of forests, meaning that these actors use the forest for several different purposes at once, like tourism, artisanal handicrafts, timber harvesting, and recreation. We knew little about why people take up these various activities and how they learn to do them.
We interviewed 75 people who use forests for multiple purposes, either a forest they own or in a forest owned by someone else. Through these interviews and walks around the forest with the participants, we saw that how people learn about these practices is deeply connected to how they value the forest.
We discovered three main groups of ‘multiple-use forest practitioners’. First, Inheritors tend to take over family land and innovate to keep the forest-based business viable today and into the future. Those in the Lifestylers group often move to forests seeking a better work-life balance and learn by experimenting and relying on neighbors. The third group of Vision-driven entrepreneurs generally start with a specific business idea, like guided tours or artisanal handicrafts, and learn by building partnerships and navigating complex policy and regulations they encounter when developing their business.
Across all groups, we found that the learning people experience is not just about acquiring practical skills. It is also strongly connected to the values that these individuals hold for the forest by changing or pushing back against the dominant ways of doing forestry. While making a living is important for the people we interviewed, it is rarely their only goal. Their business goals are tightly linked to caring for nature, feeling connected to the land, and taking responsibility for future generations.
These diverse multiple-use forest practices offer a path toward transformative change in forestry, by making the alternative forest practices expressed by the participants practicable and meaningful. However, these small businesses often struggle financially and lack support. To help these practices thrive, there is a need for more tailored training, support for networks that promote these practices, and clarification of regulations to make it easier for forest owners and entrepreneurs to manage the forest in diverse ways.
