FOREST COOPERATIVES AS AN INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE MODERNISATION OF REGIONAL FORESTRY SECTORS: APPLYING INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICE

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that, in recent decades, forestry cooperatives have served as an effective means of consolidating the resource-production and natural-resource potential of small-scale forest owners and forest users. It has been established that a significant competitive advantage of forest cooperatives over other institutional forms of forestry management is that their establishment does not entail a change in the form of ownership of forest resources. It has been demonstrated that in Ukraine, due to the spread of self-afforestation processes across significant areas of agricultural land and land deregulation, the preconditions have been established for the implementation of forest cooperatives into domestic forestry practice. These cooperatives have demonstrated a high level of efficiency in Western European countries. Research has shown that the German model of forest cooperatives is characterised by a high level of adaptability to market conditions and the modern challenges of sustainable and balanced forest management. It helps to overcome the fragmentation of forest land and improve the conditions for forestry production among small-scale forest owners and forest users. It has been established that the French model of forestry cooperation brings together the supply from a large number of small-scale forest owners, enabling them to enter into contracts with major players in the timber and pulp and paper industries, as well as with energy companies. It has been found that a distinctive feature of the Italian model of forest cooperative operation is their territorial identity, multifunctionality and social sustainability. In particular, Italian forest cooperatives often aim to preserve life in mountain villages, create jobs for vulnerable groups and promote the socio-economic revitalisation of depressed local communities. It is substantiated that the development of a modern model of forest cooperation in Ukraine should combine individual elements of the German, French and Italian models of forest cooperative operation. It should be done to take full account of the territorial heterogeneity of forest growing conditions, ensure the convergence of the operational priorities of the private forestry sector with the development priorities of rural areas as the primary territorial basis for the expanded reproduction of forest resource potential, enhance the comprehensiveness of the use of ecosystem services provided by forest biogeocenoses, expand the scale of agroforestry in sparsely forested regions.