How can public authorities support co-production of mountain bike trails?

MTB trail building and maintenance in Denmark frequently take place as co-production involving volunteers and public authorities. The aim of this paper is to explore how organizational factors of public authorities impact the level and quality of co-production in relation to voluntary MTB trail building. The aim is pursued through content analysis of qualitative interviews with 30 volunteers and representatives for public authorities in three Danish municipalities. The findings show that favourable conditions for voluntary MTB trail building depend on (i) the availability of the public officials; (ii) whether financial, practical and administrative resources are available; (iii) how the public officials perceive the volunteers; (iv) whether possibilities of joint decision-taking between volunteers and public officials exist and (v) to which extent the volunteers have a voice in the decision process and, if so, when they were involved. Finally, the importance of early involvement of volunteers in co-production processes and how the five points can contribute to this are discussed.