Understanding the management logic of private forest owners: A new approach Ana Novais, Maria João Canadas ⁎ Instituto Superior de Agronomia/Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal abstract article info Article history: Received 28 July 2008 Received in revised form 1 September 2009 Accepted 9 September 2009 Keywords: NIPF owners Forest management practices Forest work Outsourcing Family work Forest technology Recently, several typologies of non-industrial private forest owners were established in order to assess their objectives and attitudes toward forests. However, current management practices and work organization have usually not been explicitly addressed in these empirically based typologies. In a context of increasing outsourcing and decreasing family work in forests, it is important to know the forest practices, who carries them out, and with whose labour and equipment. The interrelated knowledge of these variables sheds light on the constraints faced by different forest owners and about the agents caring for their forests. Such knowledge can also improve the understanding of forest owners' behaviour and, therefore, be useful for the design and implementation of forest policies. The work models of Portuguese non-industrial private forest were identified with these goals in mind. A cluster analysis, using a representative nationwide sample and an empirically based set of variables, was instrumental in identifying six work models. The interrelation amongst these models and other variables such as landholding attributes (e.g. forest size and dominant species), owners' social profile, and their economic goals was also assessed. Finally, the main dynamics of private owners' forest management are outlined. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Non-industrial private forests, that is, forestlands privately owned by farmers, individuals, or corporations other than forest industries, account for much of the total forest area of several European countries (Harrison et al., 2002; Brandl, 2007). Non-industrial private forests (NIPF) represented 73% of the total Portuguese forest area in 1995 (Radich and Baptista, 2005). Following the recognition of the importance of non-industrial ownership for the successful implementation of a forest policy, in recent years several NIPF owner typologies have been built to assess the diversity and social context of forest management (Karpinnen, 1998; Masden, 2003, Dhubháin et al., 2006; Emtage et al., 2007; Marey et al., 2007). Nevertheless, very few forest owners' typologies have focused on the characterization of management practices and work organization (Boon and Meilby, 2007). In a review of these typologies, Dhubháin et al. (2006) consider them to centre on the values and objectives of forest owners, rarely addressing the explicit link between those objectives and actual management practices. Not surprisingly, forestry work organization is normally absent from these empirically based typologies. However, in more qualitative approaches, it has frequently been assumed that work organization is a differentiating factor between industrial and non-industrial forest owners, large-scale and small-scale properties, farmers and non-farmers, or rural and urban residents. The difference between farming and non-farming or urban and rural residence is said to be related to different family work availability, attitudes toward work, and possibilities of transferring skills and equipment from the farm to the forest (Normandin, 1996; Díaz and Fonseca, 2000; Kvarda, 2004; Ziegenspeck et al., 2004; Herbohn, 2006). Verifying these matters requires knowledge of the relationship between management practices and the work organization patterns of private forest owners. This system of interrelationships is called “work model” (Canadas, 1998). In fact, the socioeconomic analyses of forestry work and employment have been developed more in the context of industrial private owners and large public forestlands, and much less in the context of NIPF owners. From a general overview of those analyses, some features of work organization in forests, over the two last decades, can be emphasized: a trend toward an increase of outsourcing (Mäkinen, 1997; Janzen and Sanberg, 1998; Lilley et al., 2002); the expansion of outsourcing from transportation to timber felling and silvicultural operations (Poschen and Lovgren, 2001; Rummukainen et al., 2006); a decrease of family work, which in any event, remains more important in silvicultural practices than in harvesting operations (Nordfjell et al., 2005). The increase in contracting out of forest work that was previously carried out in-house, is aimed at reducing fixed charges with equipment and permanent employment, and transferring financial risks and labour issues to forest contractors (Anderson et al., 1996; Janzen and Sanberg, 1998; Wang and Kooten, 1999; Clarke and Isaacs, 2005; Westermayer, 2006). Yet, this framework is insufficient for understanding work organization in NIPF forestlands, because this organization is not exclusively guided by entrepreneurial management logic (Schlüter, Forest Policy and Economics 12 (2010) 173–180 ⁎ Corresponding author. Departamento de Economia Agrária, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal. Tel.: +351 213653332; fax: +351 213620743. E-mail addresses: ananovais@isa.utl.pt (A. Novais), mjcanadas@isa.utl.pt (M.J. Canadas). 1389-9341/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2009.09.010 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Forest Policy and Economics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/forpol