Preferences of community public advisory group members for characteristics of Canadian forest tenures in pursuit of sustainable forest management objectives

Community involvement, a recognized cornerstone of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in many jurisdictions, often relies on Public Advisory Groups (PAGs) to inform forest management planning. This study analyzes perceptions of PAG members in Canada regarding how forest tenures promote or inhibit the pursuit of three SFM objectives: competitiveness, environmental integrity and community stability. The analysis uses data from ratings questions and a best–worst choice experiment. Our results suggest that most respondents in both western and eastern Canada believed that the current structure of tenures meet the SFM objectives. However, results show significant differences between eastern and western respondents. For competitiveness, eastern respondents suggested that duration and flexibility in operational and harvesting requirements were most important, while western respondents indicated that flexibility in operational requirements and harvest levels were most important. The results also indicate, however, that support from PAG members for governments to alter tenure characteristics may be limited, particularly in the east. For western respondents, there was some agreement (i.e. more people agreeing than disagreeing) regarding: increasing tenure duration, decreasing flexibility in operational requirements, and increasing flexibility of harvest levels. Though our overall findings suggest that PAG members are generally satisfied with current tenure arrangements, questions remain regarding what segments of society these members represent, and whether sufficient attention has been given to the complex relationships between structures of forest tenures and the pursuit of SFM.