The harvesting behaviour of Irish private forest owners Áine Ní Dhubháin a, ⁎, Karl Maguire b , Niall Farrelly c a School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Ireland b Private Forestry Consultant, Cavan, Ireland c Teagasc, Athenry, Ireland abstract article info Article history: Received 13 November 2009 Received in revised form 11 March 2010 Accepted 3 May 2010 Keywords: Non-industrial private forest owners Thinning Production targets Extension The Irish government has an ambitious plan to increase the forest cover in Ireland from 10% to 17% by the year 2030 and in doing so achieve a competitive scale of timber production. Substantial financial incentives are available to encourage landowners, especially farmers, to plant. To achieve the desired scale of timber production, the plan assumes that grant-funded forests will be managed and harvested in a similar way to State forests. This study set out to determine the objectives of private forest owners for their forests and to establish whether they planned to thin their stands. It also looked at the factors influencing a private forest owner's decision to harvest and the role that extension plays in this process. A survey of 120 private forest owners who had afforested land since 1980 was conducted in 2007. The study found that while most forest owners hoped to produce timber from their woods many of them either planned to use the timber themselves or were unsure as to whether they would put it on the market. Availing of extension activities significantly increased the likelihood that an owner would thin his/her stand. However, the study raised concerns as to whether owners were making the correct silvicultural decision regarding thinning. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In 1996, the Irish Government published its strategic plan for the development of the forestry sector in Ireland, the aim of which was to “develop forestry to a scale and in a manner which maximises its contribution to national economic and social well-being on a sustainable basis and which is compatible with the protection of the environment” (DAFF, 1996, p. 3). At the time, forestry accounted for 8% of the land cover. The plan laid out afforestation targets of 25,000 ha per annum to the year 2000 and 20,000 ha per annum thereafter to the year 2030 (which would lead to forestry accounting for 17% of the land cover) with the desired ratio of 30:70 public and private afforestation. The latter was to be undertaken primarily by farmers and was encouraged through the continued availability of grants to cover the cost of establishing plantations (grants were initially introduced in 1980), along with an annual premium payment, to be paid for 15–20 years, to compensate forest owners for the loss of income arising from afforestation (premiums were initially intro- duced in 1990). In the strategy, the case for continued investment in forestry was made primarily on the basis of the target size for the industry, i.e. critical mass, which was defined as “the scale of timber production large enough to make true competition and the operation of market forces possible and to support a range of processing industries” (DAFF, 1996, p. 2) and was set at a minimum of 10 million m 3 per annum. Annual timber production at the time the strategy was published was just over 2 million m 3 , less than 5% of which was harvested in private forests. It was forecast that with the achievement of the afforestation targets, production from private forests would account for 22% of timber output by 2015, and would continue to increase thereafter (Gallagher and O'Carroll, 2001). Since 1980, an estimated 18,000 Irish landowners, mostly farmers, have afforested 212,200 ha for the first time. This area accounts for 70% of the entire private forest estate, 100% of the area afforested privately since 1980, and 69% of total afforestation during that period. It brings the total forest area to 700,000 ha (i.e. 10% of the land cover). To achieve critical mass, it was assumed that private plantations would be managed and harvested in a similar way to State plantations. Standard practice within State forests is that thinning occurs for the first time when the crop is aged between 14 and 24 years (Forest Service, 2007) and continues thereafter at regular intervals until clearfelling occurs when the stand is 45–50 years. However, non-industrial private forest owners do not always manage their stands in a similar way to public or other private forest owners (Herbohn, 2006). There is great variability, for example, in their harvesting behaviour as they have a variety of objectives for their forests, ranging from timber production to environmental conserva- tion and amenity (Hugosson and Ingemarsson, 2004; Ziegenspeck et al., 2004). For example, Rodríguez and Marey (2008) found that 55% of the 103 Galician forest owners surveyed had sold timber in a 5-year reference period. In Finland, almost three-quarters of Finnish family forest owners surveyed had sold timber at least once in a 7-year reference period (Hujala et al., 2009). In contrast, Butler and Forest Policy and Economics 12 (2010) 513–517 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +353 17167755; fax: +353 17161104. E-mail address: aine.nidhubhain@ucd.ie (Á. Ní Dhubháin). 1389-9341/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2010.05.008 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Forest Policy and Economics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/forpol