Enhancing public participation in state forest management: a user council survey

Abstract

User councils were introduced in all Danish state forest districts in 1995 with the objective of enhancing the influence of local users on forest management. Based on a survey among user council members in 1998, this paper examines to what extent the members of forest user councils perceive that they have gained influence over the management of state forests and whether perceptions vary with organizational or district affiliation, occupation or gender. Results show that the present structure and procedure of the user councils is quite balanced, as none of the stakeholders seems significantly more or less satisfied with the procedure than others. However, the objective of enhancing the influence of local users is only partly achieved, as only half of the respondents have a clear perception of having gained influence, whereas almost one-third reported that they did not experience increased influence.