A web content-based method of stakeholder analysis: The case of forestry in the context of natural resource management

Abstract

A range of approaches have been developed to support natural resource management. One such approach, stakeholder analysis, involves the use of a range of tools to identify and assess stakeholder interests and influence. Comprehensive empirical stakeholder analysis, however, can be time consuming and resource intensive. Approaches therefore frequently rely on the researcher's personal interpretation rather than empirical analysis. To address this limitation, a web content-based method (WCM) is proposed. Innovative and user-friendly, this empirical method comprises stakeholder information and the use of keywords in a content analysis of preselected stakeholder webpages, demonstrated here, through UK forestry, as an illustrative example. In this study, the application of WCM provides a comprehensive overview of the multitude of stakeholders in UK forestry and in the various goods and services they provide: Stakeholders' primary interests were in the provisioning services of timber and fuel wood; the cultural services of education and recreation; and to a lesser extent, the regulating services of climate and water regulation. While not without limitations, this systematic method provides an effective tool to support researchers, industry, and non-governmental organisations in different fields and countries, to undertake stakeholder analysis, especially in the case of small-scale studies in complex contexts and where resources are limited.

Keywords: Content analysis; Ecosystem services; Forest management; Forestry; Qualitative research; Stakeholder mapping; UK; Woodland.