Information networks, learning, and adoption dynamics of sustainable forest management practices: Evidence from private forest landowners

Sustainable forest management plays a central role in aligning the objectives of private forest landowners with broader environmental and societal goals while supporting long-term provision of ecosystem services. The adoption and intensity of sustainable forest management practices (SFMPs) are critical for enhancing forest productivity, sustaining ecosystem services, and ensuring long-term resilience. Forest carbon offset programs have emerged as market-based policy instruments to promote SFMPs by providing financial incentives to landowners to adopt carbon-capture practices. This study examines the determinants of both SFMP adoption and intensity using survey data from participants in the West Virginia Managed Timberland Program. We employ a multivariate probit model to analyze adoption decisions and Poisson regression to assess adoption intensity. The results show that practices compatible with existing management systems, such as avoided conversion (64.8%) and selective harvesting (58.5%), are more widely adopted. In contrast, practices requiring longer-term commitments or more active intervention, like reforestation or afforestation (34.4%), reduced harvesting (31.8%), and extended harvest rotations (26.8%), have lower adoption rates. Empirical findings indicate that private information networks and landowner experience are associated with the likelihood of adopting SFMPs, although their effects vary across practices. Additionally, familiarity with carbon offset programs, stronger co-benefits perception, and longer ownership duration are associated with adoption and intensity. These findings highlight the importance of policies that strengthen access to trusted information, leverage peer-based learning networks, increase awareness of carbon market opportunities, and support sustained landowner engagement to promote broader and more intensive adoption of sustainable forest management practices on private lands.