The role of economic incentives and social norms in forest resource management

Forests are experiencing increasing pressure from human activities, which is leading to rapid deforestation and loss of ecosystem services. Although deforestation occurs for a wide range of reasons, one important reason is that landowners lack a long-term management view. I suggest that both economic incentives and social norms will work differently to reduce landowners’ motivation to deforest and to help landowners identify the long-term benefits that will be obtained by sacrificing short-term gain.