Challenges for community-owned forests between traditional and new uses of forests: a Q-methodology study applied to an Alpine case

There is a worldwide increasing interest in forest ecosystem services (FESs), especially regulating and cultural ones. Providing FESs requires the shift towards a multifunctional forest management approach, and forest owners are key in this process. Current research on motivations and attitudes of forest owners towards provision of regulating and cultural FES focuses on non-industrial private forest owners but neglects community-owned forests, despite them being often innovative and multifunctional models of forest resource management. The paper explores the views of community-owned forest institutions to provide forest recreation. Sixteen cases have been studied in an alpine valley in Italy, where these institutions have been existing since hundreds of years. Q methodology was used. Q methodology is a semi-qualitative technique used to systematically analyze diverse points of view among individuals or groups by having them rank statements on a topic, allowing for the identification of similar views. Results show a general positive view of community-owned forest institutions towards providing recreation but with nuanced positions, which could be clustered in two groups. The first and largest group looked favourably at providing more forest recreation; the change towards forest recreation was however conditional to maintain adequate levels of income and receiving external support from public authorities. The latter and smaller group was more sceptical, being concerned about the potential negative impacts of visitors in the forest. Both groups stressed that sensitivity and respect of the visitors towards the property are decisive factors for accepting and improving public accessibility. The paper reflects on the challenges for these traditional forms of forest ownership in front of new societal demands, and concludes that, regarding forest recreation, the attitudes of community-owned forest institutions are not very different than those of other private forest owners.