IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ulp/sbbeta/2026-23.html

Understanding Forest Owners’ Behaviors Toward Natural Insurance in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Fanny Claise
  • Marielle Brunette
  • Rasoul Yousefpour

Abstract

Natural insurance, which is based on the provision of ecosystem services, could strengthen forest resilience and reduce vulnerability to natural disturbances. However, little is known about how forest owners behave with regard to providing this forest function. To address this knowledge gap, this study surveyed private forest owners in four European countries, analysisng their behaviors towards natural insurance. Our multi-step approach uses descriptive statistics, cluster and principal component analyses and logit regressions. Our results reveal significant cross-country differences in terms of natural insurance behaviors. Four profiles of private forest owners were identified: incentive-sensitive, proactive managers, disengaged, and highly engaged. The provision of natural insurance is primarily influenced by the socio-economic characteristics of owners and the attributes of their forest properties, while management practices vary depending on the practice and the country considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Fanny Claise & Marielle Brunette & Rasoul Yousefpour, 2026. "Understanding Forest Owners’ Behaviors Toward Natural Insurance in Europe," Working Papers of BETA 2026-23, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2026-23
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2026/2026-23.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:hal:journl:hal-01744533 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Quaas, Martin & Baumgärtner, Stefan & De Lara, Michel, 2019. "Insurance value of natural capital," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Emmanuelle Augeraud-Véron & Giorgio Fabbri & Katheline Schubert, 2019. "The Value of Biodiversity as an Insurance Device," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1068-1081.
    4. Faure, Jérôme & Mouysset, Lauriane, 2025. "Natural insurance as a green alternative for farmers? Empirical evidence for semi-natural habitats and methodological bias," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    5. Jon Strand & Britaldo Soares-Filho & Marcos Heil Costa & Ubirajara Oliveira & Sonia Carvalho Ribeiro & Gabrielle Ferreira Pires & Aline Oliveira & Raoni Rajão & Peter May & Richard van der Hoff & Juha, 2018. "Spatially explicit valuation of the Brazilian Amazon Forest’s Ecosystem Services," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(11), pages 657-664, November.
    6. Fanny Claise & Marielle Brunette, 2025. "Insurance Demand Against Natural Hazards by Forest Owners: A French Case Study Using Discrete Choice Modeling," Working Papers of BETA 2025-42, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    7. M. Brunette & M. Hanewinkel & R. Yousefpour, 2020. "Risk aversion hinders forestry professionals to adapt to climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 2157-2180, October.
    8. Emmanuelle Augeraud-Véron & Giorgio Fabbri & Katheline Schubert, 2019. "The Value of Biodiversity as an Insurance Device," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1068-1081.
    9. Michael W. Beck & Iñigo J. Losada & Pelayo Menéndez & Borja G. Reguero & Pedro Díaz-Simal & Felipe Fernández, 2018. "The global flood protection savings provided by coral reefs," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.
    10. Quaas, Martin F. & Baumgärtner, Stefan, 2008. "Natural vs. financial insurance in the management of public-good ecosystems," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 397-406, April.
    11. Jérôme Faure & Lauriane Mouysset, 2025. "Natural insurance as a green alternative for farmers? Empirical evidence for semi-natural habitats and methodological bias," Post-Print hal-05208106, HAL.
    12. Olschewski, Roland & Bebi, Peter & Teich, Michaela & Wissen Hayek, Ulrike & Grêt-Regamey, Adrienne, 2012. "Avalanche protection by forests — A choice experiment in the Swiss Alps," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 19-24.
    13. Unterberger, Christian & Olschewski, Roland, 2021. "Determining the insurance value of ecosystems: A discrete choice study on natural hazard protection by forests," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Augeraud-Véron, Emmanuelle & Fabbri, Giorgio & Schubert, Katheline, 2021. "Volatility-reducing biodiversity conservation under strategic interactions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. Marielle Brunette & Marc Hanewinkel, 2021. "Assurance financière et assurance naturelle : une application à la forêt," Working Papers of BETA 2021-28, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    3. Unterberger, Christian & Olschewski, Roland, 2021. "Determining the insurance value of ecosystems: A discrete choice study on natural hazard protection by forests," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    4. Alou, Nicolas & Schaub, Sergei & Suter, Matthias & Lüscher, Andreas & Finger, Robert, 2026. "Plant diversity to cope with increased drought risk in grasslands," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    5. Thomas Knoke & Carola Paul & Elizabeth Gosling & Isabelle Jarisch & Johannes Mohr & Rupert Seidl, 2023. "Assessing the Economic Resilience of Different Management Systems to Severe Forest Disturbance," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(2), pages 343-381, February.
    6. Friedrich Scherzinger & Martin Schädler & Thomas Reitz & Rui Yin & Harald Auge & Ines Merbach & Christiane Roscher & W Stanley Harpole & Evgenia Blagodatskaya & Julia Siebert & Marcel Ciobanu & Fabian, 2024. "Sustainable land management enhances ecological and economic multifunctionality under ambient and future climate," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Carvalho Ribeiro, Sónia & Soares Filho, Britaldo & Cesalpino, Tiago & Araújo, Alessandra & Teixeira, Marina & Cardoso, Jussara & Figueiras, Danilo & Nunes, Felipe & Rajão, Raoni, 2024. "Bioeconomic markets based on the use of native species (NS) in Brazil," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    8. Augeraud-Véron, Emmanuelle & Fabbri, Giorgio & Schubert, Katheline, 2021. "Prevention and mitigation of epidemics: Biodiversity conservation and confinement policies," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    9. Hahn, Thomas & Sioen, Giles B. & Gasparatos, Alexandros & Elmqvist, Thomas & Brondizio, Eduardo & Gómez-Baggethun, Erik & Folke, Carl & Setiawati, Martiwi Diah & Atmaja, Tri & Arini, Enggar Yustisi & , 2023. "Insurance value of biodiversity in the Anthropocene is the full resilience value," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    10. Simon Jean & Lauriane Mouysset, 2022. "Bioeconomic models for terrestrial social-ecological system management: a review [Modèles bioéconomiques pour la gestion des socio-écosystèmes terrestres : une revue de la littérature]," Post-Print hal-05312281, HAL.
    11. Augeraud-Véron, Emmanuelle & Fabbri, Giorgio & Schubert, Katheline, 2021. "Prevention and mitigation of epidemics: Biodiversity conservation and confinement policies," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    12. Villamayor-Tomas, Sergio & Sagebiel, Julian & Rommel, Jens & Olschewski, Roland, 2021. "Types of collective action problems and farmers’ willingness to accept agri-environmental schemes in Switzerland," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    13. Hallberg-Sramek, Isabella & Nordström, Eva-Maria & Priebe, Janina & Reimerson, Elsa & Mårald, Erland & Nordin, Annika, 2023. "Combining scientific and local knowledge improves evaluating future scenarios of forest ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    14. de Ayala, Amaia & Hoyos, David & Mariel, Petr, 2015. "Suitability of discrete choice experiments for landscape management under the European Landscape Convention," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 79-96.
    15. Can Askan Mavi & Nicolas Quérou, 2020. "Common pool resource management and risk perceptions," DEM Discussion Paper Series 20-25, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    16. van der Hoff, Richard & Nascimento, Nathália & Fabrício-Neto, Ailton & Jaramillo-Giraldo, Carolina & Ambrosio, Geanderson & Arieira, Julia & Afonso Nobre, Carlos & Rajão, Raoni, 2022. "Policy-oriented ecosystem services research on tropical forests in South America: A systematic literature review," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    17. repec:wbk:wboper:37244 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Yan Jin & Dušan Drabik, 2022. "CRISPR Rice vs conventional rice dilemma of a Chinese farmer," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 66(2), pages 424-446, April.
    19. Grilli, Gianluca & Fratini, Roberto & Marone, Enrico & Sacchelli, Sandro, 2020. "A spatial-based tool for the analysis of payments for forest ecosystem services related to hydrogeological protection," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    20. Beck, Michael W. & Heck, Nadine & Narayan, Siddharth & Menéndez, Pelayo & Reguero, Borja G. & Bitterwolf, Stephan & Torres-Ortega, Saul & Lange, Glenn-Marie & Pfliegner, Kerstin & Pietsch McNulty, Val, 2022. "Return on investment for mangrove and reef flood protection," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    21. Bos, Björn & Drupp, Moritz & Meya, Jasper & Quaas, Martin, 2021. "The Commons Problem under Uncertainty and Precaution," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242471, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Q23 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Forestry
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2026-23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask the person in charge to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bestrfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.