Ownership matters: Forestland concentration in rural Alabama

The land tenure literature theorizes relationships between land tenure patterns and rural well-being which have application in the analysis of contemporary trends in forestland ownership in the U.S. South. Of particular interest are impacts of landownership concentration on the well-being of rural areas. In this article, we review the literature on land concentration and well-being; describe current forest ownership patterns in the state of Alabama; discuss the possible relevance of such patterns to economic, social, and environmental well-being; and propose a research agenda for measuring forestland concentration and testing hypothetical relationships between forest tenure and rural well-being.