Beliefs of Forest Owners Toward Cooperative Capercaillie Lekking Site Management Operations: a Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

The beliefs of forest owners with regard to cooperative forest management on capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) lekking sites were explored in a qualitative interview study targeted at owners (n = 12) with lekking sites on their properties. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used as a framework, through which the beliefs of the forest owners were elicited for further study, while discussing the readiness of forest owners to participate in cooperative lekking site management. Results indicated that forest owners’ attitudes toward cooperative management of lekking sites are related to their beliefs on how cooperation influences their forestry-related decision-making, forest use, and capercaillie well-being. The forest management decisions by forest owners were influenced by family and by forest professionals, whereas neighbors were not considered as important referents in their decision-making process. Age of the forest owners and compensation claims for cooperation require further study as factors that controlled the readiness to cooperate.

KEYWORDS:

• Forest owner
• forest management
• cooperation
• capercaillie (tetrao urogallus)
• lekking sites

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the project “Metsokannat kasvuun ja tarinat talteen Kauhajoella,” which was financed by European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development through the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, South Ostrobothnia. We would also like to acknowledge the support of Leader Suupohja with data collection in this study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland Flagship ‘Forest-Human-Machine Interplay – Building Resilience, Redefining Value Networks and Enabling Meaningful Experiences’ (UNITE) under Grant [337127].