Recent global trends in forest tenures

Wide-ranging changes in forest tenures have occurred globally in recent decades, and the changes in developed countries and transition economies have been dominated by market forces. Market-based forest tenure changes are discussed in 4 categories (i) forest management by a state-owned company (Sweden); (ii) commercialization, corporatization, and privatization of plantations (New Zealand, South Africa and Australia); (iii) creation of forest enterprises within state forestry agencies (the United Kingdom, Germany, and transition economies), and (iv) changes in forest tenures in economies in transition. The global tenure changes provide no empirical evidence in support of any specific form of tenure. I suggest 9 guiding principles, instead of a specific type of tenure, for forest tenure reform in Canada. Forest reforms should be organized (i) keeping the future of forestry in perspective; (ii) for multiple attributes of forests; (iii) to provide flexibility, diversity, and adaptiveness, (iv) to foster forest industry competitiveness; (v) for economically optimal timber supply, (vi) to maximize the value of harvested timber; (vii) to recognize and deal with the non-separation of forest management and Limber allocation and harvest; (viii) to select an appropriate organizational form, Such as state business enterprise, corporation, or state-owned company, based on a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis; and (ix) to seek inputs from an expert group-without direct stakeholders.