Browsing by discipline "Metsäekonomia"

The study examines views of the family forest owners on the profitability of forestry, profitability factors related service needs, and possibilities to improve profitability. The data were collected by interviewing 19 forest owners who are members of the Forest Management Association Päijät-Häme. The employed method was semi-structured interview. In addition, structured questionnaires were used to collect information on the forest ownership objectives. The results consist of the conceptualization of forest owners’ attitudes in terms of forestry profitability, typology of the forest owners’ profitability views, types of forest owners’ information service needs and classification of attitudes towards the profitability of information services. Forest owners had various views on profitability. They were mainly interested in utilizing their forests. However, forest owners' knowledge and abilities to utilize the profitability concepts were incomplete. The economic information services could provide a solution to this problem. Services for forest owners could indicate the potential total economic value of forests. The forest owners could be encouraged to implement actions to improve profitability by showing and digesting the gap between their current and the potential situation. Profitability services could be implemented in interaction with the forest owners, information and personal advice. The government could influence the profitability of the non-industrial forestry by providing incentives to build up and utilize the services.

This study examines the service quality of a Finnish forest service company. The forest services market in Finland is undergoing a radical change in market structure after the Finnish Forest Act changed in 2014. Accordingly, government-backed forest service organizations must adapt their business models towards competitive markets and they must reconsider their own competitive edge. The aim of the study is to analyse internal environment of a company in order to produce service quality. The aim is to understand what are the customers’ experiences of the service quality and from which factors the quality is formed. The target group of the study are the Finnish urban forest owners. This group of forest owners is a customer target group for the Finnish forest service organization. The theoretical framework is based on Perceived Service Quality theory. The theory examines service quality comparing customers’ expectation s to customers’ experiences. If service experience exceeds the expectations, the level of service quality is considered good. The Gap Model of the Perceived Service Quality-theory examines the performance of the internal environment of a company in order to produce service quality. The performance of the internal environment is a crucial aspect of service quality because it determines the bases whether the service quality is considered good by a customer. The data was collected from urban forest owners and the company’s staff. The customer survey was sent by email to 1287 forest owners. The staff survey was submitted to all 284 staff members of the company. The customer survey response rate was 24. Staff response rate was 27. The method used in the study was SERVQUAL and Gap Model, which are both based on Perceived Service Quality-theory. The result shows that the service quality produced by the forest service organization is considered good among customers. The service quality is composed from four different factors which are: personal service, communication and marketing, the execution of forest services and the outcome. The results indicated four different customer segments among urban forest owners. These customer groups were named “concentrated on execution”, “service oriented”, “emphasized on outcome” and “indifferent toward services”. The group “concentrated on execution” had highest expectations towards services. The group “emphasized on outcome” stressed the result of the forest service. The group of “service oriented” was largest and these clients underlined the importance of a good personal service. Failures is personal service resulted in the group of indifferent customers. There were more respondents included to this group than others that had used forest road-services or were from Lapland, North Ostrobothnia or Kainuu. The Gap Model indicated the core development areas in internal environment in order to produce service quality. The gaps were wide in relation to the optimal level of internal environment that would serve to produce quality service. In particular, management's views differed from the views of other staff. The results show that the standardization of services and internal communication are the core elements for the development of high-quality service.

The aims of this study were to update an accounting model suitable for profitability calculations in family forestry, to test the MELA-software for evaluating stand and bare land values and to test the presented accounting model with two family forest properties located in Päijät-Häme area. Owners of the case forest properties provided bookkeeping notes, tax information, timber sales details, felling information, an estimation of entrepreneurial work and the amount of wood products taken for private use from year 2013. Forest Management Association Päijät-Häme provided numerical forest plans including stand level information from properties as well as association-level average stumpage prices and unit costs from years 2012 and 2013 for MELA-software calculations. MELA-software was employed to calculate the values of stands and bare land. The accounting model for family forestry was updated according to the requirements of international accounting standards (IFRS/IAS) and the forest stand liquidity effects of amended Finnish forest act of 2014. Profit and loss statement and balance sheet were illustrated by presenting average results per hectare for the case forest properties. Total net values of the forest property, divided into stumpage value, bare land value and goodwill value, were placed as non-current assets on the balance sheet. The changes in goodwill and stumpage values were also taken into account in the profit and loss statement. Current assets of the balance sheet included only items, which will be realized in the near future, like sold but not yet felled trees or harvested round woods, which are waiting for the transport. Additionally the balance sheet was amended with short-term tax income liabilities. The profitability of private forest properties was analyzed by using relative profitability indicators, which were return on investment (ROI), return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). The case forest properties had different structures in business and growing stock and therefore the accounting model could describe interesting results, even though the analyzed fiscal period was only one year. The results of the study can be utilized in developing profitability information services for forestry, for example the Economy Doctor by Natural Resources Institute Finland.

Over 60% of all the forest land in Finland is owned by private forest owners and most of these forests are owned by families. Private forest owners have been studied in Finland quite a lot, but there are still quite few studies about women owning forest land. The theory is based on previous Finnish, Swedish and American studies about female forest owners. The goals of this study were to describe women and their behaviour as forest owners as well as explore how they use forest consultation services, which background characteristics influenced the usage and how it differed from men’s behaviour. The data used in this study was Suomalainen metsänomistaja 2010 and it has been gathered during 2004-2008 via postal survey. The sample, 13,000, was divided into 13 forest centres. Valid responses were obtained 6318, so the percentage of responses was 49,2%. The background characteristics and behaviour of female forest owners were explored by using means and cross-tabs. Linear regression model and logit-model were used to describe the usage of forest consultation services and the background characteristics influencing it. On the supposition that the amount of the female forest owners has been under estimated in previous studies (25%), the purpose of this study is also to determine more exact number. Previously, the amount of female forest owners has been estimated on the strength of the respondent of the postal survey, but it hasn’t been taken into account that men are more likely to answer the survey than women. This study showed that 38% or 44% of all forest owners in Finland were women depending on the calculation method. Female forest owners were older and better educated than men, but they sold less wood as well as did less maintenance work and also their estates were smaller. Women used the forest consultation services less frequent than men. Women’s goals of owning forest were also different from men’s, since over a third of women used their forest for recreational purposes. Women were more passive forest owners than men. This can be partly explained by the large amount of women using their forest for recreational purposes. Women could be encouraged to be more active through a women’s own network. These kinds of networks have been put into practice for example in the USA.

Työn tavoitteena on mallintaa ekonometrisen analyysin avulla, kuinka kysyntä ja tarjontamallit vaikuttavat pystyhakkuiden hakkuumäärään. Tarkasteltava alue on koko Suomi, jossa mukana kaikki metsäkeskukset. Työssä esitettyjen mallien on tarkoitus kuvata Suomen raakapuumarkkinoita. Aikasarja- aineisto koostuu tukkipuun (kuusi -, mänty ja koivu), kuitupuun (kuusi, mänty ja koivu) keskimääräisistä kantohinnoista, sahatavaran vientituotteiden ja sellu – ja paperiteollisuus vientituotteiden hinnoista sekä metsäteollisuuden palkkatasosta. Tarkasteltava ajanjakso on 2003 – 2017. Tilastollisesti merkittävin tulos saatiin sahatavaran kysyntämallin estimoimisesta, jossa melkein kaikki valitut selittävät muuttujat kuvasivat sahatavan kysyntää hyvin. Testien avulla saatujen tietojen perustella, vaikuttaisi että suurimmat vaihtelut kysynnässä ja tarjonnassa tapahtuu lyhyellä aikavälillä. Muuten tilastollisesti merkittävimmät tulokset saatiin tarjontamalleista. Vaikka tutkielma sisältää puutteita, niin tutkielman avulla saatuja estimaatteja voidaan hyödyntää raakapuumarkkinoiden jatkotutkimuksissa.

Political incentives often have a central role in bioenergy production. Influence of these incentives is expected to increase, because conventional fossil fuels are draining and the climate change forces policy makers to react. Hence, the demand for biofuels is also expected to grow. Woodbased fuels are the most important biofuel and renewable energy source in Finland. Woodbased fuels are almost equally divided into liquid byproducts of the pulp industry and solid woodbased fuels. This study focuses on solid woodbased fuels, because these solid fuels have markets unlike e.g. black liquor and because these shares increase. In this study, the solid woodbased fuels include forest chips, bark, sawdust, industrial chips, recycled wood and pellets. One aim of the study is to formulate a general view of the Finnish woodbased fuel markets. The demand is analysed by using the statistics of The Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) and the supply by using existing literature. Metla compiles statistics about the utilization of woodbased fuels from over 700 energy facilities, comparing several categories of woodbased fuels. This study overwiews the period from 2003 to 2007. Energy facilities are divided into four different so that the specifics of the demand can be identified. Another aim of the thesis is to study the impact of emissions trading on woodbased fuel utilization. Emissions trading is the most important instrument for improving the competitive advantage of renewable energy production for energy facilities that belong to the scheme, producing heat or electricity with over 20 MW nominal effect. The growth in the credit price of 2 co emissions increases the demand for biofuels and reduces the demand for fossil fuel in energy facilities of over 20 MW. Empirical analysis are carried out for different energy facility categories. Large community facilities are more sensitive to the changes of credit price than the forest industry`s plants. Energy facilities with 520 MW nominal capacities reduce the woodbased fuel utilization, when the credit price rises. This flux diminishes the effect of the emissions trading. On the other hand, it seems that changes in credit price do not affect the woodbased fuel consumption in energy facilities of less than 5 MW. The utilization of woodbased fuels will change due to the stuctural changes in the forest industry. The production of byproducts, such as bark, decreases with diminishing quantaties of traditional forest industry products. If the increasing demand was met, forest chip utilization should be added. However, especially the restriction of production in the sawmill industry decreases the supply of harvesting residues chip and forest chip production shifts more towards energy wood thinning. Also, the use of woodbased fuels among different energy facilities is changing. The utilization of woodbased fuels has traditionally been centralized in the forest industry units using industrial byproducts. Nowadays, it is also an important energy source for the energy production facilities of the communities due to different policy instruments. This has affected that the trade of woodbased fuels has increased.

Forest industries of many forest-rich Nordic nations have traditionally been highly export oriented, where domestic demand is not sufficient to guarantee the existing production capacity. Under these circumstances the exchange rate, the value of the domestic currency relative to that of the trading partners, becomes then one of the most important macroeconomic considerations. In the short run it determines the profitability and competitiveness, and thus each firm’s survival. In the long run, firms may e.g. hedge against unfavourable currency fluctuations or anticipate future currency developments and stipulate them in their long-term sales contracts. Firms also have the possibility to act strategically by absorbing some or all of a currency change in export prices and this way affecting traded quantities. Although theoretical contributions to the literature fail to conclusively validate this hypothesis and the results of empirical estimations are widely mixed, studies concerning forest products trade have often found evidence of exchange rate effects on traded quantities. Previous studies concerning Finnish forest product exports have reported the use of exchange rate changes to alter prices in the buyer’s currency, especially as a consequence of deliberate currency fixing. For example devaluations, often used to downsize the effect of a rising domestic cost level, have increased the price competitiveness and export quantities of Finnish forest industry firms. Realization of the third phase of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) on the beginning of 1999 merged the participating countries’ currencies into the euro at an irrevocable fixed rate, which then eliminated the possibility to independently realign the currency value. Moreover, exchange rate effects, and hence exchange rate risks, have exclusively been vanished from intra-EMU trade. This has meant the opening of a whole new market for many small open economies. At the same time, a change in the business environment could have caused severe adaptation problems to some Finnish forest industry firms. The aim of the present study is to examine the effects of Finland’s EMU participation on its sawnwood exports to the main export markets in United Kingdom and Germany. As Finland’s most important competitor Sweden decided to remain outside the monetary union, it was chosen to serve as a reference point for the possible effects the loss of an independent monetary policy has had. Weakening of the krone against the euro for the past years has brought additional interest on the topic. The emphasis is on studying relative prices and its effects on traded quantities through the long-run exchange rate pass-through phenomenon for the period 1995- 2008. The empirical estimation is carried out by applying Johansen’s cointegration method for the separate partial equilibrium model systems, for each bilateral trade of Finland and Sweden to both destination markets. The results give evidence that Finnish sawnwood exports have been affected to a great extent by currency movements. Depreciations of the euro have boosted export demand, whereas appreciations have, in turn, dampened imports from Finland. The pricing strategy exploited by Swedish exporters has been somewhat opposite to Finnish exporters’. This has meant both a more stable price for Swedish sawnwood importers and export demand faced by Swedish exporters. These findings further suggest only minor negative effects of Swedish krone depreciations on Finnish sawnwood firms’ price competitiveness. Nevertheless, Swedish exporters have been able to achieve higher profits, which seems to have been an important consideration behind some recent shifts of production from Finland to Sweden.

The consequences of tropical forest degradation and deforestation have gained global political attention due to their contribution on climate change and biodiversity loss. Forest degradation and deforestation are also having impacts on local peoples living in the forests. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and European Union Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) including its Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) are two prominent efforts towards reducing the loss of tropical forests. Even though they have different implementation strategies, they both reach for positive change in governance. They are facing similar challenges including corruption, legality of land allocation and lack of secure tenure. Noticeably secure tenure is associated with most of the governance challenges. Several forest rich tropical countries such as Cameroon are participating in these processes to sustainably manage their forests. In Cameroon the rapid population growth together with growing global need for natural resources are driving unsustainable and illegal actions in forest sector. This master’s thesis examines how are REDD+ and FLEGT are contributing on forest governance and securing tenure rights of local peoples, how secure tenure can affect the implementation of the REDD+ and FLEGT processes and in what extent should the tenure rights be transferred to locals to achieve the goals of the REDD+ and FLEGT. The empirical research is conducted through analysing policy documents and literature as well as interviewing officials and local peoples in Cameroon. The main results are that in Cameroon there are no real political will to address the forest loss, and the local peoples have very little role on protecting their livelihood even though it would be important for them and also for the processes of REDD+ and FLEGT. Also, the government of Cameroon gives a little role for REDD+ and FLEGT in the governance of forest resources. So far, the processes have not had significant influence on tenure condition in Cameroon. The recommendations of this study is for REDD+ and FLEGT to concentrate more on education especially in local level since the lack of understanding is hindering the development of both processes. The collaboration and greater transparency between REDD+ and FLEGT would be crucial for their success.