Divergence in stakeholders' preferences: Evidence from a choice experiment on forest landscapes preferences in Sweden

- Citizens value biodiversity protection higher than other forest stakeholders.
- Forest owners and forest officials have a strong orientation towards production.
- Citizens value different dimensions of biodiversity.
- Preferences for geographical spread of biodiversity are mixed.

A great deal of biodiversity can be found in private forests, and protecting it requires taking into consideration the preferences of key stakeholders. In this study, we examine divergence in stakeholders' preferences for forest attributes across the general public, private non-industrial forest owners and public and private forest officials in Sweden by conducting a discrete choice experiment. Our results indicate that citizens have a positive valuation of biodiversity protection. Moreover, their valuation is statistically significantly higher than those of forest owners. Interestingly, our results suggest that both forest owners and forest officials have a strong orientation towards production, with higher valuation than the general public of the common management practice of even aged stands and clear felling. Even though the Swedish Forestry Act regards production and environmental goals as equally important, we find that forest officials prefer management practices that promote production rather than biodiversity protection.