A Systems Approach to Identify and Explain Family Forest Owners’ Technical Options. The Link with Labor Organization, Decision-Making Styles and Timber Sales

Planted forests have been expanding in Europe and elsewhere, enlarging the range of management practices followed for the same forest species and land use. The main goal of this research is to shed light on that diversity by identifying and explaining family forest owners’ technical options and management practices in the example of Eucalyptus planted forests in Portugal. The innovative character of our conceptual framework comes first from the technical system approach to forest practices, and secondly from the importance assigned to the owners’ advisory and market contexts to explain those options. Resorting to a survey of family owners and cluster analysis, three systems were established: Manual, Mechanical and Low tree density. Shrub clearing method, type of fertilization and tree density were used to establish those systems. Differences among them are associated with labor organization (internalization or externalization, family or wage), decision-making style (isolated, autonomous, delegated), and timber sales regularity and remuneration. The Manual system, for instance, is associated with family labor, a more isolated decision-making style, and the least favorable conditions for timber valorization and chain integration. The Mechanical system is practiced by more autonomous and informed decision-makers, with frequent sales, better timber remuneration conditions, and family and wage labor. The last system is associated with labor externalization and decision delegation. From this identification of systems and explanatory factors, we anticipate a double movement of intensification and forestry abandonment within the same land use, whose regulation may require institutional and policy arrangements distinct from the present ones.