Non-industrial private forest owners' risk preferences

A set of hypotheses was formulated on the basis of available knowledge about non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners' risk preferences. The empirical material used for testing the hypotheses was gathered in telephone interviews with 130 randomly selected NIPF owners. The results confirm that direct economic risks such as price and cost changes are seen by this group as much more important than indirect economic risks such as biological damage. The forest owners regarded forest holdings as a safer investment than stocks or bank savings. The results on risk attitudes were ambiguous. However, when larger amounts of money were at stake, the forest owners could be considered risk averters and a decrease in absolute and relative risk aversion could be confirmed.