Multiple-use forestry for social values

• Published in: Ambio Vol. 20; no. 7; pp. 330 - 333
• Main Authors: Koch, N.E. (Skov- og Naturstyrelsen, Hoersholm (Denmark)), Kennedy, J.J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 01-11-1991
• Subjects: Commercial forests; Economic value; Forest management; Forest resources; Forest service; FORESTERIE A OBJECTIFS INTEGRES; Foresters; HISTOIRE; HISTORIA; HISTORY; MULTIPLE USE FORESTRY; Old growth forests; Plantation forestry; Social forestry; SOCIAL VALUES; Urban forestry; USO MULTIPLE DEL BOSQUE; VALEUR SOCIALE; VALORES SOCIALES
• ISSN: 0044-7447; 1654-7209

Multiple-use forests should be managed to provide a mix of social values for current and future generations. Taking a Western-world orientation and a historical approach, this article examines how forest values originate in society and are communicated to forest managers. For most of the last 200 years, the benefits of public and private forests in the Western world were predominately utilitarian and their immediate social value expressed primarily in market prices. As these countries industrialized and urbanized, romantic and symbolic forest values increased. Today the social values of forest recreation, landscape amenity, biological diversity, cultural heritage and environmental protection are of increased importance. These forest social values are not well communicated by the economic system. They rely on social and political systems to express their values. Utilitarian social values are often in conflict with romantic and symbolic forest values today; thus foresters increasingly are placed in the role of conflict managers. In what they do and do not do, foresters can reduce or increase social conflict