Browsing by Subject "factors affecting the wood supply"

In Finland there are over 18 million hectares of forest land which is suitable for wood production. Of this amount the proportion of private forests is over 60 %. The private forests have also an important role in the Finnish forest industry. For example, in 2008, Finnish forest industry used more than 66 million cubic meters of wood, of which 62 % came from the private forests. The change in the forest ownership structure in Finland began in the 1960s and it will continue in the future as well. As a result, nowadays the average age of the Finnish forest owner has risen to 60 years, the proportion of farmer forest owners has decreased, the proportion of urban forest owners has increased and the objectives of the forest owners have changed. Among other things, these changes have raised a threat that wood supply would possibly decrease in the future. In addition, the availability of imported wood is under a threat in the near future, because Finland’s main importing country Russia is planning significant increases in wood export duties in 2011. Then it would be more challenging to replace the possibly diminishing timber supply from private forests with imported wood. These threats created a need for this study to examine the regional utilization rates of the private forests and the Finnish forest owners’ timber sales behavior and the factors influencing it. The results of the forest utilization rates showed that the forests have already been in full use in many provinces. However, depending on the timber assortment it would have been possible to increase the loggings in 4 – 9 provinces during 2004 – 2008. In that sense, if the aim is to increase the loggings in the future, then at least in principle, it would be possible. The results of the Finnish forest owners’ timber supply and the factors affecting it showed that the most significant factors were the combinations of the forest plans, the proportion of protected areas, the prices of timber assortments, the proportion of agriculture and forestry entrepreneurs and the proportion of urban forest owners. All these factors had a positive impact on wood supply except the proportion of protected areas.