Protecting or destructing? Local perceptions of environmental consideration in Lithuanian forestry

Environmental consideration is an important facet of modern forestry. However, its perceptions by those who own and manage the forest are seldom investigated. After reviewing the evolution of pertinent legislative requirements, this study scrutinizes the attitudes towards environmental consideration, based on qualitative interviews of Lithuanian private forest owners (PFOs), state forest managers, forest management planners and other local forest stakeholders. We find a considerable increase of environmental consideration since 1990, with emphasis on forestland zoning at landscape level. Most of the interviewed forest managers and PFOs are aware of and compliant with the legal demands, however, their judgement of environmental consideration appears to be strongly affected by the degree of the faced restrictions. Informants who manage forest areas with a high share of non-commercial forest zones assess the current restrictions as excessive. Though the Lithuanian forestland zoning overall can be seen as a successful example of implementing multiple use forestry at landscape level, deep qualitative interviews expose several critical issues. Hastily performed zoning entails many mistakes, where the forest or landscape characteristics do not match the intended purpose. Even more critically, severe forest management restrictions around the nests of rare birds lead to widespread destructions of nests in private forests. The most important recommendations of our study are: (i) introducing a fair system of compensations for the economic losses inflicted on PFOs; and (ii) gradual rezoning of forestland, with radically improved consideration of local specifics, including on site assessments and genuine involvement of the local stakeholdersVilniaus universitetasVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij