Forest Owners ’ Organizations in North and Central Portugal – Assessment of Success 1 Forest Owners ’ Organizations in North and Central Portugal – Assessment of Success

The emergence of forest owners ’ organizations (FOOs) in Portugal occurred in the 1990s. Fifteen years later there were 173 FOOs providing services to the private forest owners and also to the whole of society. This study aims to evaluate the success of FOOs in increas-ing their membership and the quantity of services pro-vided. Material and methods: Eight FOOs from the North and Central Portugal were chosen as case studies. Quantitative data on member-ship numbers and number of services provided by the eight case studies were collected from the archives of FORESTIS or directly at the FOOs headquarters. Quali-tative data from newsletters, annual reports, local newspapers and letters were also collected to be fur-ther analysed. Secondary data collected cover a pe-riod of substitute 10 years by 11 years (1994-2005). In addition, eight interviews to members of staff or FOOs directors were conducted in 2005. It was hypoth-esised that the number of members and the quantity of services provided may be interrelated and that the turnover of staff and their productivity influence the success of FOOs in increasing their membership and providing technical advice services. Results and conclusion: The study showed that although most FOOs were suc-cessful in making their membership grow, there were big differences in the number of members, in the for-est area covered by them and in the quantity of ser-vices provided. It was concluded that human capital, financial capital and path dependence were the fac-tors that most constrained the success FOOs in Nort