Forestry's hesitance in area-based rural development programmes - analysis of political causes.

摘要

Participation of forestry actors, such as forest owners, their associations, public forest administrations and downstream industries in area-based rural development activities so far has been low. Based on empirical data from a qualitative case study, this article firstly validates this finding also for the political involvement of institutional (collective) actors. It then reveals the potential benefits of area-based rural development funding programmes for forestry actors. The subsequent analysis of political causes for the low degree of involvement identifies sector-internal reasons such as a lack of communicative skills, information deficits and a conservative attitude towards forest policy. The main sector-external causes were observed to be an agricultural bias of funding programmes, the incongruence between the programmes and forestry institutions as well as the prevailing public perception of forestry as an ecological sector. The article closes with some brief conclusions as well as recommendations for forest owners, their associations and public forest administrations on how to enhance their benefits from integrated funding programmes.