The Environmental Impact of Horse Logging in the UK

Summary Description:

This research looks to value the lay knowledge of professional horse-loggers in the UK. This knowledge type, alongside local and indigenous knowledge,  has growing recognition by the international scientific community in supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation. Themes will emerge from the data which will provide insight into the practice and could potentially highlight UK specific sustainability considerations for the future of forestry  operations within the UK.

Project Outcomes:

This qualitative research sought to explore what environmental impacts horse loggers experience in their practice and how horse logging contributes to sustainable forest management in the UK, and collected the experiential local knowledge of the human in this human-horse-forest relationship through semi-structured interviews. These were conducted with seven occupational horse loggers from across the UK in a woodland they had worked in for at least two consecutive years. The results were analysed through a thematic template analysis utilising the DPSIR (Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response) framework.

Five environmental impacts were identified: soil- and tree- protection and development; biodiversity development; enabling connection and absence of pollution. These present the place-based direct experiences of the participants and potentially offer some new findings which are relevant to, and appear absent in, research and UK policy.

Three further themes were constructed: a response of woodland management that provides  woodland health; a driver of economic and environment values; and the pressure of time. These add potential insight into the environmental, economic, and social effects that may also contribute to the overall sustainability of horse logging.

Positive feedback loops were identified through the placement of all themes within the DPSIR framework which appear to be complicated by interconnected conflicts of personal and economic values and temporal scales. This implies complex causality and the need to consider wider factors that may be affecting the sustainability of horse logging and may have implications for UK sustainable forest management policy. Suggestions for further research and solutions based on the findings are made.