The impact of ownership type on the implementation of forest management

This section is concerned with operational forest
management as defined in Section 1. It focuses on the
processes of decision-making and planning of forest
management, and arrangements for forest operations;
together these constitute the practices required for active
stewardship of forest land. The section does not address the
details of prescriptions within the management plans.
The processes and implementation of forest management
depend on both the forest ownership, and the regulatory
systems in place within a country (see Section 5.1). In the
case of public owners, regulation and direct instruction are
intended to ensure forest management will fulfil national
policy and thus meet society’s needs. For private owners,
regulation varies considerably from laisse faire (owners can
do as they wish) through minimal regulation with incentives
to the imposition of legal requirements to conform with
detailed management procedures and prescriptions. In
this way, to varying degrees, the state reserves to itself the
right to determine or influence the management of private
forests. The emergence of new owners and ownership types
(see Section 3.2), particularly in the private sector, challenges
preconceptions about the practice of forest management.
Changing societal demands have also engendered adaptation
in public forest management procedures and regulation.