Privata skogsägares inställning till frivilliga naturvårdsavsättningar samt kvalitets- och tillväxthöjande skogsskötselåtgärder

Abstract: The business mission of Norra Skogsägarna is to achieve a profitable forestry for the private forest owners. With this as a background it is of interest for the forest owner association to know how forest owners think about voluntary retentions, the methods of increasing production and quality and if there are differences between those who have chosen to certify their forest and those who haven't. This kind of knowledge is of importance, to in an effectively and adjusted way, help the forest owners achieve a profitable forestry. The objective of this master thesis is to increase knowledge about private forest owners' opinions of the methods of increasing production and quality and to what extent these methods are used. The purpose was also to increase knowledge about how private forest owners think about voluntary retentions. A part of this objective was to investigate if the voluntary retentions corresponded with possible habitats of rare and endangered species and to estimate the forest owners' losses of income, due to the voluntary retentions that are made at the forest property. The objective was also to increase knowledge about private forest owners' opinions of the social- and cultural concerns. Both already PEFC certified and those who were not were included in the study. All of the included had green plans. Women and men were also compared. The study included 400 private forest owners with forest properties between 50 and 150 hectares. Half of the sample consisted of already PEFC certified forest owners and the other half by those who were not certified. The questionnaires were basis for the personal telephone interviews of 15 certified and 15 not certified forest owners. The stands that were voluntarily set-aside in the forestry plan, was compared to possible habitats of rare and endangered species. The forest owners' losses of revenue, due to the voluntary retentions that are made at the forest property, were estimated by forest stand data from the forestry plans and Beståndsmetoden. These studies were made on the same sample as in the personal telephone interviews. The results show that 45 % of the not certified forest owners thought that they were certified and 18 % that didn't know. It is possible that one thinks that the forest is certified when he/she procures a green forestry plan. In the questionnaire more than half of the respondents answered that they had chosen to do voluntarily retentions. 58 % of the certified forest owners answered that they had chosen to voluntarily set aside productive forest land. This differs greatly with the result from the telephone interviews, where almost everybody answered that they were aware of that voluntarily retentions are recommended in the green forestry plan and that they choose to follow the recommendations. At the telephone interviews the expression voluntarily retentions was more detailed which can be an explanation to the difference. This indicates that it is very important to thoroughly describe what a voluntary retention is so that the forest owner understands the question. When the forest owners were asked how they valued different compensations, if a formal forest protection was to be made at their property, it turned out that the forest owners were negative to contracts and more negative to a longer contract. They weren't positive to the land being bought by the state either. The type of compensation that the forest owners were most positive to was forest land compensation. None of the respondents were interested in compensating the production loss, due to voluntary retentions or other environment concerns, with methods of increasing production. One of the most common reasons was that they weren't going to use that forest stand anyways. The voluntary retentions were therefore not looked upon as a loss of production. This study shows that the losses of revenue, due to voluntary retentions were 26 500 SEK/hectare in average at the forest properties and the total losses of revenue were in average about 150 000 SEK. A majority had a negative attitude towards lodgepole pine and only 12 % was using this specie on their property. At the telephone interviews only half of the forest owners said that they had attended some kind of schooling were they were informed about lodgepole pine and more than half said that they had negative experiences of the specie. Most of those that were negative said that it was due to the way lodgepole pine looks. Barely one of four of the forest owners had attended some kind of schooling were they were informed about forest fertilizing and most had no experience of forest fertilization. Many of the respondents said that they were negative to the method. In other words, a lot of forest owners are negative without having any experience or knowledge about forest fertilization. More than one third of the forest owners said that they were pruning and two out of three said that long rotation periods were used. Most answered that incomes from the forest were of great importance for the everyday economy. Even more forest owners said that incomes from the forest were of great importance sometimes, when the need was greater. No difference was found between those who said that incomes from the forest were of great importance for the everyday economy and those who didn't, regarding their attitude towards the methods of increasing production and to what extent they were used. No difference was found either between those who said that the goal to "earn money" was of great importance and those who didn't, regarding their attitude towards lodgepole pine, planting, soil scarification and forest fertilization. Among the different goals that were suggested, the goal to pass the forest along to the next generation and to increase the economic value of the forest, were of greatest importance. Equally as important was to create a beautiful forest. No ranking between the different goals were made in the questionnaire. The forest owners were asked to estimate how important each goal was to them. It showed that the forest owners often didn't just have one goal that was most important. Many of the goals that were suggested in the questionnaire were said to be important, simultaneously. This shows that trying to rank different goals can be wrong, when more than one goal is considered important at the same time. A majority answered that they had a great desire to consider the social-, cultural- and environmental concerns. The certified forest owners didn't consider themselves to have a greater knowledge of environmental concerns than the ones not certified did and they didn't have a greater desire to consider the environmental concerns, than the not certified forest owners. This suggests that it is not the desire to consider the environmental concerns that determines if one chooses to certify the forest or not. Most answered that their desire to come to an agreement, about taking much more to consideration to the social-, cultural- and environmental concerns than what the law requires, was low. On the question, whether the forest owners would consider certifying their forest or continuing being certified if they, in a public register, would have to declare what actions they have taken to mind the environmental concerns and the voluntary retentions, every third answered yes and as many said that they didn't know. The already certified forest owners' were more positive then the not certified. The men considered themselves to have a greater knowledge in forestry, economics of forestry, environment- and cultural concerns, than the women did. In average, the forest owners answered that they were willing, without economic compensation, to do voluntary retentions at almost 2 % of the productive forest land. With full economic compensation they were willing to do voluntary retentions at nearly 11 % and if the compensation was double, they would in average be willing to set-aside almost 24 %. Among the different reasons to why the forest owners chose to do voluntary retentions on the particular area, 71 % answered that it was because they were recommended by the person that generated the green forestry plan. 67 % answered that the motive was that the economic value of the forest was low in that section and 65 % said that the area was set-aside because it contained high environmental values. Half of the respondents knew of Kraftsamling skog. As many as seven out of ten answered that they were positive to the idea of attending excursions, courses or other arrangements by Kraftsamling skog. There seems to be a great interest in gaining knowledge of the methods of increasing production.