How does wood mobilization depend on marketing decisions? A country comparison based on choice experiments
Study regions in south-eastern Germany (dark red, Lower Franconia and Upper Bavaria) and north-eastern Switzerland (light red, Aargau and Grisons)
There is no one-size-fits-all policy instrument to enhance wood mobilization. The success of implementing such policy measures can vary among countries and regions depending on the specific structural and institutional conditions as well as on behavioural aspects of the particular public and private decision makers.
Context Forestry has a huge potential to contribute to a sustainable bio-economy by providing wood as a renewable resource. Making wood available to meet the future demand is one of the goals of forest policy and private initiatives.
Aims Understanding the market behaviour of forest owners and managers is important to identify effective and efficient policy instruments that enhance wood provisioning.
Methods We conducted a choice experiment at two study sites in south-eastern Germany (Upper Bavaria and Lower Franconia) and two in north-eastern Switzerland (Grisons and Aargau) to elicit foresters’ preferences for different supply channels, contract lengths, wood prices and duration of business relations.
Conclusion Our study site comparison identified regional differences and particularities, which should be taken into account when promoting wood mobilization. The success of policy instruments, such as the promotion of bundling organizations and long-term contracts, can vary depending on the specific structural and institutional conditions, like existing marketing channels, as well as on behavioural aspects of the particular public and private decision makers.
Keywords
Distribution channels, Wood harvest, Forest owners, Trading preferences
Publication
Olschewski, R., Tzanova, P., Thees, O. et al. Annals of Forest Science (2019) 76: 103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-019-0894-z
For the read-only version of the full text: https://rdcu.be/bWQJi
Data availability
Materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, are available upon request to any researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant confidentiality. Data are provided via WSL repository ENVIDAT (Olschewski et al. 2019) at https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.90.
