The future management of forest ecosystems play a vital part in both mitigating climate change and the conservation of biodiversity. In Sweden, forestry holds an immense social, ecological and economical value, where the majority of the productive forest land is owned and managed by non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners. An important component in the boreal forests that dominate Sweden are Ectomycorrhizal Fungi (EMF), a symbiotic association between fungi with roots of trees and shrubs, which play an important role in ecosystem services and forest health. In this study, I explore the considerations of EMF among NIPF owners and if these are connected to their values, objectives and management regarding forestry, and what types of incentives would be required to take EMF more into consideration in their practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain in-depth knowledge among owners of two management practices, Clear cut logging (CLC) and Continuous cover forestry (CCF). The results suggest that knowledge of EMF varied between forest owners of different management practices, where owners using CCF showed greater knowledge regarding EMF function and role in forest ecosystems. The considerations in regard to forest management could be related to ownership objectives and values, where owners using CLC showed more production-oriented objectives, and owners using CCF more nature-oriented objectives. The considerations of EMF in forestry differed between owners of different management practices, where owners using CCF showed greater consideration by the use of less intensive methods in their management. Practitioners of CCF had an overall greater conscious consideration of EMF by e.g. leaving trees. CLC owners may unconsciously consider EMF by following the recommendations of e.g. a forest certification. To improve EMF conservation, a carefully developed mixed approach regarding informational, economic and regulatory incentives is suggested to be used with regard to owner heterogeneity. Overall, this study contributes to an expanded knowledge of NIPFs owners' current and possible future consideration about EMF in forest ecosystems, and how these are related to their values, objectives and management practices. The results can be used to develop future conservation programs and advisory services for biodiversity protection aimed at various groups of forest owners.

ABSTRACT The law regulating what non-industrial private forest owners (NIPF's) can and cannot do within their forest holdings is an outline law. Thus the NIPF's have great opportunity to shape the landscape inside their holdings by their own will. Their perceptions of their holdings can thus be of great interest. This because information about their perceptions can predict change, and also bring about more understanding of the group as a whole. The aim of this essay is therefore to explore the NIPF's relationship to their forest holdings by describing their mindscapes. The data necessary to fulfil the aim was acquired from semi-structured interviews, done with five NIPF's in Västerbotten. The data was then analysed using thematic analysis, with the term mindscape as a frame. All of the NIPF's were living in the same municipality as their forest holdings. Seven themes in the mindscapes of the NIPF's were found: Everyday knowledge, human presence, the balance between human- and natural processes, change, feelings, the forest holding inside the rural landscape and to be more than one. Previous research was used to triangulate, and to better understand the mindscape of the respondents. The respondents could be divided into two of Ingemarsons (2004) typologies; Traditionalists and multiobjective owners. Where the mindscape of the multiobjective owners contained the most change.

The concept of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) has been promoted in the past few decades all over the world. Non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners play an important role in that aspect in the U.S. because of their number (about 16 millions), the size of forest land under their control (about half of all forest land in the continental US), and the dynamism of their population (increasing number of new owners). This study sought to better understand how NIPF owners come to a decision for adoption (or non-adoption) of SFM practices. We developed a theoretical model combining four theories (the Value-Belief-Norm theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Elaboration Likelihood Model, and the Innovation-Diffusion Process) to explain NIPF's decision making. Using multivariate analyses, we determined which elements of the developed theoretical model were significant in explaining adoption of eight groups of practices. Overall, some of the most significant predictors of adoption we identified were technical assistance, motivations for owning land and the use of a written management plan. Particular attention was also directed toward the eventual relationship between education and adoption of SFM practices and it was found that NIPF owners who attended educational programs tended to be likely adopters compared to those who did not attend any educational program. Since SFM was not limited to the US, we also analyzed the concept of SFM with the same goals as in the US, but under a completely different context (socio-cultural, economic and ecologic) in Africa, through the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) system. We used four case studies and focused on criteria such as participation, equity (both procedural and distributive, power devolution, trust, etc) to analyze how CBNRM works on the field, what lessons to take from the cases to better ensure the goal of sustainability of the resources. / Ph. D.