Small-scale properties are the prevailing ownership category in Slovenian private forests. Owners are becoming increasingly diverse with predominant multifunctional management orientation which has led to underutilisation of wood potentials over the past decades. We surveyed forest-related stakeholders (24) to understand their perceptions on factors affecting private forest management. We used their perceptions, as opposed to the actual barriers, to understand what needs to be changed in forest policy. This study is based on the latest (private forest owners) PFOs typology conducted in Slovenia which resulted in types of engaged and detached forest owners. A typology based framework for data collection and analysis was performed using six pre-set categories from operational environment. We followed the Simple Multiple-Attribute Rating Techniques method to evaluate the most important private forest management hindering factors. The results showed that stakeholders perceived only minor differences between owner types according to hindering factors. The psychological factors were perceived as the crucial category separating the two types, suggesting that detached owners are more substantially driven by personal decisions, which follow recent societal changes. The group of economic factors was recognized as the most important category for both types suggesting that forest policy should prioritize profit-oriented management strategies. The results imply that owner-specific forest...
COBISS.SI-ID: 5232806
This article aims to study and clearly define the terms public good, common-pool resources, and the commons. Using path dependency analysis, interviews, and workshops among the general public and experts, we highlight the perception of public goods and the commons in Slovenia as a transitional society. The analysis reveals that the general public%s understanding of these terms is still strongly influenced by communist socialist-era emphasis on social justice, equality, and access to goods for everyone, which can be at odds with the right to private property. Inadequate governance of goods that are considered public goods, but are in fact common-pool resources, can lead to conflicts and degradation of common-pool resources, which results in the loss of advantages providing wellbeing. Because people%s lives depend on subtractable natural resources, it is necessary to raise awareness about them among the general public and professional community, emphasize their vulnerability, and explain that they cannot be accessible to anyone in unlimited quantities. Furthermore, in an international context, using the Slovenian case, we seek to improve the understanding of human behaviour and expectations concerning public goods and common-pool resources in post-communist transitional societies.
COBISS.SI-ID: 43206445