Effects of Policy Measures and Moderating Factors on Climate Change Adaptation Among Private Forest Owners in Sweden

Threats associated with climate change may damage forests. To encourage adaptation in countries with a lot of privately owned forest, policy measures directed at private forest owners may be implemented. By means of policy scenarios, the present study examined the effects of two hypothetical policies: an advice and an economic incentive, on climate change adaptation among private forest owners in Sweden (n 1⁄4 753 and n 1⁄4 729). Both policies strengthened the intention to adapt although results also revealed that individual variables (i.e., forest values) and a contextual variable (i.e., being in an encouraging social risk management context) were important for the owners’ response. Production forest values and social risk management context furthermore moderated the effect of policy on intention to adapt, suggesting that the economic incentive was mainly more effective than the advice among owners with strong production values and among owners in less encouraging social risk management contexts. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 14 September 2016 Accepted 21 August 2017