Browsing by department "Institutionen för skogsekonomi"

China's primary wood processing industry and wood consuming sectors have experienced rapid growth in recent years. Industries like sawnwood and plywood have developed very quickly. The purpose of this study is to: 1) provide an overview of the demand, supply, imports and exports of raw wood and primary wood products in the China market between 1993 and 2007, 2) present quantitative estimates of the relative importance of factors influencing the demand, supply and exports of Chinese plywood, 3) draw conclusions about China's potentials and challenges for foreign enterprises, including Finnish companies. The information, analyses and findings presented in this study can give a reference for wood processing companies, especially for sawnwood and plywood firms, and governmental agencies in China. In addition, the study provides a basis for further study and research. Even though much information has been published in China, academic research in the Chinese woodworking market is scarce, and especially, time-series data is missing and unreliable. This study tries to fill this gap. It is based on secondary data collected from various sources, including literatures, journals, magazines, consulting reports, industry analysis, news, and so on. The annual time-series data obtained for variables in models are mainly gathered from original official Chinese sources. The study increases the information and understanding on the Chinese wood products markets by using descriptive and explanatory methods to analyze the data for background information, markets and empirical modeling. By employing econometric models, based on the elasticity estimates, Chinese plywood demand seems to be income elastic but price inelastic, Chinese plywood supply would be highly elastic with raw material price but scale inelastic, and Chinese plywood exports appear to be highly income elastic.

This exploratory study aims to analyze the CR reporting by eleven largest forest products companies in North America. Both annual reports and sustainability reports produced in year 2006 by eleven largest forest products companies in North America were chosen for this very study. To ensure the comparability of the results, the study adopts the similar variables in operationalizations by Routto (2008), who studied the CR reporting of European forest products companies. The methodology applied in the study is content analysis. Mean, T-test and One-way Anova analysis were used in data analysis. Though all the three pillars of CR (economic, environmental, and social) were covered in their CR reporting, the North American companies seem to give more weight to Social Focus, followed by Economic Focus and Environmental Focus respectively, whereas the largest European companies considered Environmental Focus as the most important area, Social Focus the second, whereas Economic Focus was least emphasized. A number of notable differences and similarities between the European companies and the North American companies towards CR reporting were also identified. For example, the North American companies obviously seek for more efforts to co-operate with interest groups and business partners to ensure responsible actions than the European companies. The European companies emphasize energy consumption more frequently than the North American companies. Neither the European companies nor the North American companies perceived environmental welfare at the expense of corporate profits an important element concerning Economic Focus. It would be interesting to note that neither the European companies nor the North American companies considered shareholders, NGOs and forest owners as primary target audience groups in their CR reporting, since the communication benefits were not frequently mentioned for these stakeholder groups. The study also observes some variation of CR practices within a common industrial and cultural environment. The results suggest that the US companies seem to particularly emphasize a number of issues more than the Canadian companies, namely: 1) Business behavior, 2) Social principles & guidelines, 3) Internal communication, 4) Social focus, 5) External communication, and 6) Audience. No significant difference was found concerning Social & ethical accounting and Economic focus between the US companies and the Canadian companies. Sector of Integrated forest products placed notably much more weight on Social & ethical accounting than Sectors of Consumer products and Sector of Pulp & paper & packaging in this study, whereas no other significant difference was indicated by the pair-wise comparison of means between Sector and the nine summative variables respectively. In addition, sustainability reports seem to have much clear focus on environmental-related issues than annual reports, whereas issues concerning Social Focus and External Communication received more attention in annual reports than in sustainability reports. No further significant difference was suggested between Type of report and the nine summative variables in this study. In short, the comparison between the reports by North American companies and those by the European companies showed some regional variations in CR reporting. These regional characteristics include 1) the emphasis on Social Focus by North American companies, and Environmental Focus by European companies, 2) the emphasis on partnership by North American companies, and workplace safety by European companies, 3) the emphasis on employees’ benefits by North American companies, and customers’ benefits by European companies, 4) the emphasis on commitment of top management to CR by North American companies, and existence of CR policy statements by European companies, 5) the emphasis on recycled raw materials by North American companies, and energy consumption by European companies, and 6) the emphasis on profitability by North American companies, and investing to socially/environmentally responsible targets by European companies. Such differences could also be argued to be related to the different institutional arrangements in the regions. The comparison between different sectors suggests that, Sector of Integrated forest products emphasized Social & Ethical Accounting more than Sector of Consumer products and Sector of Pulp & paper & packaging, whereas Sector of Consumer products paid more attention to Economic Focus issues than the other two sectors. The results also suggests that, sustainability reports emphasized Environmental Focus more than annual reports, whereas annual reports clearly focused on Social Focus and External Communication more than sustainability reports.

The aim of this study was to compare the differences between forest management incorporating energy wood thinning and forest management based on silvicultural recommendations (baseline). Energy wood thinning was substituted for young stand thinning and the first commercial thinning of industrial wood. The study was based on the forest stand data from Southern Finland, which were simulated by the MOTTI-simulator. The main interest was to find out the climatic benefits resulting from carbon sequestration and energy substitution. The value of energy wood was set to substitute it for coal as an alternative energy fuel (emission trade). Other political instruments (Kemera subsidies) were also analysed. The largest carbon dioxide emission reductions were achieved as a combination of carbon sequestration and energy substitution (on average, a 26-90 % increase in discounted present value in the beginning of rotation) compared to the baseline. Energy substitution increased emission reductions more effectively than carbon sequestration, when maintaining dense young stands. According to the study, energy wood thinning as a part of forest management was more profitable than the baseline when the value of carbon dioxide averaged more than 15 €/CO2 and other political subsidies were unchanged. Alternatively, the price of energy wood should on average exceed 21 €/m3 on the roadside in order to be profitable in the absence of political instruments. The most cost-efficient employment of energy wood thinning occured when the dominant height was 12 meters, when energy substitution was taken into account. According to alternative forest management, thinning of sapling stands could be done earlier or less intensely than thinning based on silvicultural recommendations and the present criteria of subsidies. Consequently, the first commercial thinning could be profitable to carry out either as harvesting of industrial wood or energy wood, or as integrated harvesting depending on the costs of the harvesting methods available and the price level of small-size industrial wood compared to energy wood.

This master’s thesis examines the effect of international forest investing on the return and risk of the overall risky portfolio. In addition this study looks at the optimal share of forest in the portfolio and correlation between different assets. Interest towards investing in forestry has increased. As a result, knowledge of forest’s characteristics as an investment and different forest investment instruments has increased. Research on forest investing has however been carried out mainly on a national level. This thesis aims to expand the field of research by taking into consideration the global nature of investing. Today, many investors understand the importance of the diversification of the portfolio and hence divide the capital into different asset classes, sectors and markets. This study includes a theoretical framework in which forest assets that differ in terms of location, species, forest management and end product can be compared and included into the portfolio. Return on forestry is calculated according to the Faustmann formula. The historical average return is used as the expected future return. Optimisation of the overall risky portfolio is based on the modern portfolio theory. The framework was tested empirically with three hypothetical case study forest assets, located in Finland, the United States and Uruguay. These forest assets were included to a portfolio, which consisted of three alternative financial assets. Results showed that investing in forest improves the performance of the overall risky portfolio. The optimal share of forest in the portfolio is around 3-15% of the capital. The extent of forest investing’s benefits and the exact share of forest in the portfolio depend on the available risk-free rate. Most of the forest assets seemed to have a low correlation with other assets. It was found that exchange rates affected risk-reward ratios and hence also the results of the optimisation process.

Tässä työssä kontortamännyn mahdollisuuksia metsätaloudessa tarkastellaan puuntuotannon kannattavuuden ja teollisen käytön sekä toimintaympäristön rajoiteiden: ympäristön, yhteiskunnan ja metsänhoidon näkökulmista. Kontortamännyn kasvatuksen kannattavuutta tarkastellaan vertaamalla sitä männyn kasvatuksen kannattavuuteen. Tarkastelu tehdään käyttämällä nettonykyarvolaskentaa. Lisäksi nettonykyarvolaskennan parametreille suoritetaan herkkyysanalyysi, jotta kontortamännyn kasvatuksen kannattavuuteen eniten vaikuttavat tekijät voidaan tunnistaa. Aiheesta tekee käytännöllisesti merkittävän kontortamännyn parempi tuottavuus suhteessa mäntyyn. Tämä vaikuttaa metsätalouden kannattavuuteen nostamalla hakkuukertymiä ja lyhentämällä kiertoaikaa. Työssä käytetyn aineiston ja simulointimenetelmän perusteella lasketut nettonykyarvot kontortamäntyskenaarioille olivat merkittävästi korkeammat kuin vastaaville mäntyskenaarioille lasketut nettonykyarvot, mikä kertoo kontortamännyn hyvästä kannattavuudesta metsänkasvatuksessa. Tuloksia tulkitessa tulee ottaa huomioon simulointimenetelmän rajoitteet sekä aineiston edustavuus. Suurimmiksi toimintaympäristöstä johtuviksi rajoitteiksi todettiin varauksellinen suhtautuminen vieraisiin puulajeihin, sertifioinnin rajoitteet sekä patologiset ja entomologiset riskit. Metsänhoidollisten tekijöiden ei todettu rajoittavan kontortamännyn käyttöönottoa. Merkittävin kysymys, mikä kontortamännyn käyttöönottoon laajassa mittakaavassa liittyy, on että kompensoiko parantunut puuntuotanto ja metsätalouden kannattavuus toimintaympäristön riskit ja rajoitteet.

Tutkimuksen tavoitteet Tutkimuksen teoreettinen osa esittelee yhteiskunnallisten hankkeiden arvottamiseen liittyvää koti- ja ulkomaista kirjallisuutta. Empiirinen osa tutkii Savonlinnasta poimitun metsätilaotoksen avulla maiseman- ja luonnonhoidon aiheuttamia taloudellisia vaikutuksia tilojen metsänomistajille sekä vertaa näitä tuloksia haastattelututkimuksesta saatuihin vastauksiin maksuhalukkuudesta monimuotoisuuden hyväksi. Lähdeaineisto Metsämaiseman- ja luonnonhoidon aiheuttamia taloudellisia vaikutuksia tutkittaessa case-aineistona käytettiin keskeisen Saimaan Pihlajaveden saaristoalueen 24 tilaa, joiden omistajat olivat tilanneet Etelä-Savon metsäkeskukselta uudentyyppisen maiseman- ja luonnonhoidon arvot huomioivan metsäsuunnitelman. Samalla aineistolla suoritettiin myös metsänomistajien haastattelu, jonka avulla selvitettiin metsänomistajien maksuhalukkuutta monimuotoisuudesta ja maisemamansuojelusta. Lisäksi kysyttiin mielipiteitä nykyisistä metsänhoitosuosituksista ja alueelle kaavailluista luonnonsuojeluhankkeista. Aineiston käsittely Taloudellisia vaikutuksia tutkittaessa maisema- ja luontoarvoja korostavaa metsäsuunnitelmalaskelmaa verrattiin maksimaaliseen puuntuotantoon tähtäävään metsäsuunnitelmaan. Näiden kahden vaihtoehtoisten laskelman välinen erotus tulkittiin monimuotoisuuden turvaamisen metsälötason puuntuotannolliseksi vaikutukseksi. Vastaavasti haastatteluosuudessa metsänomistajilta kysyttiin, kuinka paljon he olisivat valmiita luopumaan metsätuloistaan monimuotoisuuden edistämiseksi. Maksuhalukkuutta tutkittaessa käytettiin contingent valuation -menetelmää. Tulokset Siirtyminen ns. perinteisestä metsänkäsittelystä maiseman- ja luonnonhoidon huomioivaan metsänkäsittelyyn pienentää metsästä saatavia nettotuloja ensimmäisen kymmenvuotiskauden aikana 36 % eli 289 mk/ha vuosittain. Vastaavasti metsänomistajien maksuhalukkuus monimutoisuuden edistämisestä oli 5,3 % metsätuloista, joka on rahassa 18 mk/ha vuosittain. Nettotulojen merkittävä pieneneminen selittyy kohteen arvokkailla maisema-arvoilla ja ekologisten elinympäristöjen runsaalla lukumäärällä. Tulosten tilastollista luotettavuutta ei otoksen pienuuden vuoksi voitu tarkastella.

Cost-effective mitigation of climate change is essential for both climate and environmental policy. Forest rotation age is one of the silvicultural measures by which the forest carbon stocks can be influenced with in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol, Article 3.4. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how forest rotation age affects carbon sequestration and the profitability of forestry. The relation between the forest rotation period optimizing forest owners’ discounted net returns over time and rotations which are 10, 20 and 30 years longer than the optimal rotation is examined. In addition, the cost of lengthening the rotation period is studied as well as whether carbon sequestration revenues can improve the profitability of forestry. The data used in the study consist of 16 stands located in Southern Finland. The main tree species in these stands were Norway spruce and Scots pine. Forest simulation tool MOTTI was used in the analysis. The results indicate that by lengthening the rotation period forest carbon stocks increase. However, as the rotation period is lengthened by more than 10 years, as a result of the diminishing growth curve, the rate of carbon sequestration slows down. The average discounted cost of carbon sequestration varied between 2.4 – 14.1 €/tCO2. Carbon sequestration rates in spruce stands were higher and the costs lower than those obtained from pine stands. The absence of carbon trading schemes is an obstacle for the commercialization of forest carbon sinks. In the future, research should concentrate on analysing what kind of operational models of carbon trading could be feasible in Finland.

Sustainable forestry has been the primary principle of Finnish forest policy for decades. However the concept has extended to areas of ecological and socio-cultural sustainability alongside with the more usual economic sustainability. Goals for the use of forests have multiplied and made an impact on forest legislation and policy programmes. Timber production remains as the main objective of forest policy but other objectives, such as carbon sequestration and preservation of forest biodiversity, have also reached the policy agenda. The co-production of material and immaterial goods in forests is not straightforward and the conflicts can prevent a consistent implementation of sustainable forestry. The purpose of the study is to develop a comprehensive evaluation matrix (or table) in order to determine the logic and structure of forest policy instruments. The matrix comprises the evaluation of goals, motivation, effects and effectiveness of instruments. Theories considering process and impact evaluations are used in the analysis. Furthermore, the table is tested in practice by examining the following three policy instruments: 10§ of the Forest Act, public funding for tending of young stands and public forest planning. Content analysis was used in examining the data set of policy documents. The evaluation matrix enables a systematic assessment of policy instruments. It provides information on the consistency of the aim and effects of the instrument. Certain points in the table were sometimes difficult to fill in, but the reason can be in the structure of the instrument that public documents provide rather than in the structure of the matrix. In general, more detailed information on policy goals and motivation of the instruments would make public forest policy more transparent. In addition, the use of indicators that measure effectiveness should be further increased for easier evaluation of policy effectiveness.

The operation environment in the roundwood trade in Finland in the 1990’s include several changes. They are changes in the structure of non-industrial private forest (NIPF) ownership, forest taxation, in forest legislation, in price recommendation agreement, diminishing resources of forestry extension services, etc. At the same time, the roundwood demand has been rising. All these developments cause uncertainty in wood procurement organisations, and call for research to find out how to adapt into the changing environment. The objective of this study is to produce information for roundwood purchasing planning and cus-tomer satisfaction management to be used by Stora Enso Metsä Customer Service, Helsinki. For this pur-pose, data needs to be gathered about the urban NIPFs and their forest estates, behaviour related to forestry and timber-selling, customer satisfaction in their latest timber selling transaction, and their opinions about Enso’s new customer service office and its service concept. To fulfil the objective of the study, a NIPF -owner -survey (N=1064, response rate 39,7%) was con-ducted in October 1998-January 1999. The sample was made on the basis of the marketing database of Stora Enso Oyj Forest Customer Service in Helsinki. In planning the frame of reference of the empirical study, the model of service quality by Grönroos was applied. The following aspects were included in the 7-page questionnaire: demographic, sosio-economic and forest estate background, relation to the forest service supply, behaviour related to forestry, timber-selling motives and behaviour, last contact organisation and its image in forestry business, expectations and percep-tions in the latest timber-selling transactions, and behavioural intentions. The results revealed that the share of women, pensioners and academically educated people among forest owners was quite high. The majority of the forest estates of the metropolitan forest owners were situ-ated in the provinces of South Finland and East Finland. The average forest estate area was considerably smaller than in a previous study. Economic and recreational objectives were most important in the use of forests. Forest Associations were involved in half of the roundwood sales transactions of the respondents in the metropolitan area. The wood quantity of transactions was considerably higher than the average in the whole country. Bank-organised forest-related activities, taxation infos and trips to the forest were the most popular activities. Among the services, silvicultural advices were needed mostly and stub treatment least. Brochure material related to stumpage timber sales and taxation were considered most important compared to material related to delivery sales. The service expectations were at highest for women and they were less satisfied with the service than men. 2nd and 3rd generation residents of the metropolitan area thought about the new customer service concept more positively than the 1st generation residents. Internet users under 60 years thought more positively about new satellite picture-based woodlot search concept. Cross-tabulation of factor scores against background variables indicated that women with relatively low education level a greater need to sell roundwood than entrepreneurs, white-collar workers and directors, and Internet users. Suspiciousness towards timber procurement organisations was relatively strong among women and those whose forest income share of the total income was either null or over 20 %. The average customer satisfaction score was negative in all nine questions. Statistical differences be-tween different companies did not exist in the average satisfaction scores. Stora Enso’s Helsinki forest cus-tomer service could choose the ability to purchase all timber grades as its competitive advantage. Out of nine service dimension included in the questionnaire, in this particular service dimension, Enso’s Helsinki forest customer service’s score exceeded most all organisations’ average customer satisfaction score. On the basis of importance – performance matrix, advice and quidance could have been provided more to the forest owners in their latest timber–selling transaction.