title: Analysis of Swedish Forest Owners' Information and Knowledge-Sharing Networks for Decision-Making: Insights for Climate Change Communication and Adaptation.
abstract: To further the understanding of climate change adaptation processes, more attention needs to be paid to the various contextual factors that shape whether and how climate-related knowledge and information is received and acted upon by actors involved. This study sets out to examine the characteristics of forest owners' in Sweden, the information and knowledge-sharing networks they draw upon for decision-making, and their perceptions of climate risks, their forests' resilience, the need for adaptation, and perceived adaptive capacity. By applying the concept of ego-network analysis, the empirical data was generated by a quantitative survey distributed to 3000 private forest owners' in Sweden in 2014 with a response rate of 31%. The results show that there is a positive correlation, even though it is generally weak, between forest owner climate perceptions and (i) network features, i.e. network size and heterogeneity, and (ii) presence of certain alter groups (i.e. network members or actors). Results indicate that forest owners' social networks currently serve only a minimal function of sharing knowledge of climate change and adaptation. Moreover, considering the fairly infrequent contact between respondents and alter groups, the timing of knowledge sharing is important. In conclusion we suggest those actors that forest owners' most frequently communicate with, especially forestry experts providing advisory services (e.g. forest owner associations, companies, and authorities) have a clear role to communicate both the risks of climate change and opportunities for adaptation. Peers are valuable in connecting information about climate risks and adaptation to the actual forest property.
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm Centre, Linnégatan 87D, Stockholm, 115 23, Sweden. karin.andre@sei-international.org.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: André
authors.affiliation: Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baird
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm Centre, Linnégatan 87D, Stockholm, 115 23, Sweden.
authors.forename: Åsa
authors.initials: Å
authors.lastname: Gerger Swartling
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm Centre, Linnégatan 87D, Stockholm, 115 23, Sweden.|School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, UK.
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vulturius
authors.affiliation: Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada.|Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Kräftriket 2B, Stockholm, 114 19, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Plummer
mesh_terms: D057231:Climate Change; D003142:Communication; D003256:Community Participation; D003657:Decision Making; D016468:Forestry / Q000379:methods*; D065928:Forests; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D010465:Perception; D011340:Problem Solving; D060756:Social Networking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden
keywords: Communication; Decision-making; Ego-network analysis; Forest management; Knowledge; Risk perception