Invisible losses. What a catastrophe does to forest owners' identity and trust in afforestation programmes

International audienceIn Ireland the political consensus to expand forest cover has not been really questioned for the last five decades, neither by policy-makers nor by forest owners' representatives. However, in 2014, Irish private forest owners experienced for the first time in their life a catastrophic windstorm. A qualitative survey, conducted among the forest owners affected by the storm, shows that, beyond the economic losses, this disaster deeply shook their convictions about the real benefits of afforestation programmes. Using the theoretical concept of relational expectations, we show that Storm Darwin deconstructed a significant part of their identity as their status switched from audacious pioneer to forestry loser overnight. However the political and socio-economic structures outweighed the agency of individuals and their initial desire not to reforest. While the reconstitution scheme gave them the direction to follow, it reduced the risk of desertion. However, our study also shows that landowners may be a lot more cautious before signing up for afforestation programmes in the future

Le comportement des propriétaires forestiers après la tempête Darwin de 2014 : une enquête exploratoire

ce rapport de recherche rend compte d'un travail de recherche effectué dans le cadre d'une mission longue durée au département Forestry de l'University college Dublin (UCD). Il aborde la question du comportement des propriétaires et gestionnaires forestiers irlandais suite à la tempête Darwin qui a ravagé le sud ouest de l'Irlande en 2014. Cette tempête particulièrement catastrophique a sérieusement ébranlé les propriétaires forestiers et a obligé les pouvoirs publics à intervenir fortement pour convaincre les candidats au boisement à investir en forêt. Ce rapport rend ainsi compte des difficultés éprouvés par les différents acteurs de la filière à rebondir après cet événement, y compris le ministère en charge des forêts qui a mis plus de 2 ans pour mettre enfin en place un plan de reconstitution