Public preferences for SFM: Case studies in tenure policy and forest certification

Forest institutions are human creations that govern how actors on the forest landscape interact. Two forest institutions were examined, namely that of tenure and certification. This study focused on the preferences of a proxy for the general public for tenure characteristics, examined through the Best Worst method, and the Willingness to Pay (WTP) of the Alberta public for both Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) approved printer paper, examined with respect to the individual characteristics in both a conditional logit and a random parameters logit model. The study found that there is significant regional variation with respect to preferences in tenure characteristics, and that respondents found current tenure structures least amenable to competitiveness of the forest sector. It was found that there was strong preference by respondents toward certified printer paper, but insignificant differences in WTP were discovered between FSC and CSA approved printer paper.