Browsing by Subject "ulkoilu"

The recreational use of private forests is very common in Finland and it is possible due to everyman’s rights. However, recreational use is seldom taken into account in the private forest management because the main purpose of the private forests is usually timber production. That is why especially private forests are places where recreationists face changes in the environment such as loggings. The purpose of the study was to find out the significance of private forests as recreational environments and in recreational use. The focus was on the following questions: in what kind of forest environments the number of visits was the highest, how the participants evaluated the suitableness of different forest environments for recreation and what they thought about the changes in the environment. Furthermore, the interest of the participants to take part in maintaining or improving the recreational values of private forests was examined. The study was conducted as a survey and it was a part of The Finnish Forest Research Institute’s project Natura-based recreation monitoring and assessment. The enquiry was carried out in the year 2010 and the number of respondents was 384. The data was analysed by statistical methods. The variables of the study questions were crosstabulated in different background variable groups such as socioeconomic factors. The forestry actions were analysed by factor analysis and the means of the factor scores were explored in different background variable groups by the analysis of variance. The interest of the participants to take part in maintaining the recreational values of private forests was analysed with the logistic regression analysis. On the strength of the study, the most suitable forest environment for recreation was a sparse and light forest. The participants preferred most slight actions that made the environment more passable but maintained the feel of the forest. Clearcuts were the most disliked. There was not any remarkable interest in paying for the maintaining of the recreational values of private forests, though those who came from southern Finland, who used a lot of their free-time in nature and who regarded landscapes important for recreation were more interested in that than the others. Some participant groups, like those who spent a lot of time at the recreational homes, were interested in maintaining recreational values by taking part in the forest management. Because private forests are not expected to be at a natural state it can be concluded that the recreationists also understand the economic value of private forests. The lack of interest in taking part in maintaining the recreational values of private forests possibly results from that people are not used to the idea of paying for a quality recreational environment.