Browsing by discipline "Forest Economics and Marketing"

Wetlands are one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. They provide numerous different ecosystem services and their importance has been acknowledged internationally. However, the number and extent of wetlands has continued decreasing globally and the increasing population poses threats on more and more wetlands. The Life+ Urban Oases project (fin. Keidas-hanke), that has made this Masters Thesis possible, has pursued to bring wetlands into urban areas, where the ecosystem services, such as flood control, which they provide can be utilized to compensate for challenges brought about by changes in land use. Urban wetlands provide local population recreational and relaxing green oases. Urban wetlands also provide natural system stormwater management mitigating water quality and habitats. It is predicted that climate change will increase severity of weather extremes. Especially the probability of heavy rainstorms is expected to increase in Finland which will emphasize better stormwater management. The value of ecosystem services provided by stormwater wetlands has not been previously measured in Finland. Furthermore, beliefs of people on constructed or created wetlands in general has been studied very little. This study had two objectives: 1) To evaluate the value of the ecosystem services of constructed urban and agricultural wetlands within the Municipality of Vihti. This was carried out within the Lake Enäjärvi watershed. 2) To study what are the attitudes, perceptions and beliefs of the Vihti residents towards constructed wetlands. The study was conducted with the help of a questionnaire which was sent to 1000 Vihti residents. The valuation was conducted with the choice experiment method. There were four different attributes in total: 1. recreational possibilities, 2. number of plant and animal species, 3. the state of the Lake Enäjärvi and 4. informing. The used payment vehicle was annual stormwater fee for a household. Questionnaires of this study where sent in three different phases during the summer 2016. The survey received 277 responses during the five-week time it was open. The response rate of the survey was 27,7%. Responses were gathered by mail and on a web-based survey. Valuation results of this study were analyzed with the Multinomial Logit-model. All together two different models were made. The first one had only the valuated attributes in it whereas the second model also included different background information. For the valuation we could draw a conclusion that the respondents where willing to pay fairly big amounts for certain attributes. They were the most willing to pay for the improvement in the state of Lake Enäjärvi. The second most valuated attribute was the recreational possibilities followed by informing and the increase in the amount of plant and animal species. Of the valuated attributes, all of them, exept informing, were statistically significant at all times in the level of 1–5%. Background information had an impact on the willingness to pay to some extent. For example a person who had previously visited a constructed wetland was more eager than an average respondent to pay for developing constructed wetlands. The WTP also increased if the respondeds household had higher income and he/she was planning to live more than five years in Vihti. WTP decreased if the respondent was male and he/she lived in a detached house. Results from the questions measuring respondents’ attitudes, perceptions and beliefs reveals that most of the respondents’ attitudes towards constructed wetlands are positive and they believe that constructed wetlands create benefits to the surrounding areas. The most beneficial aspect which urban wetlands were felt to provide was the benefit of views of an augmented landscape. 72% of the respondents indicated willingness to participate in water environment conservation activities during the next five years. Finally, most of the respondents felt that the results of the Urban Oases project and it presence in Vihti were positive.

Global sustainability challenges create opportunities for companies providing solutions to these challenges. According literature a strong sustainable brand is attractive for customers, shareholders and future talents. A strong brand is a major competitive advantage for companies in global markets. In brand management communication has a vital role, and therefore developing communication is important in creating and managing brand value. The aim of this study was to find out the current status of the case company’s (Metso Corporation) environmental communication in order to develop it to strengthen company’s image as a sustainable solutions provider. In the theoretical part, the concepts of a brand, communication and environmental communication were studied, as well as the role of a communication in brand building and management. The empirical part of the study consists of interviews in across the case company’s value chain (subcontractor, Metso employees, customers and customer’s customers). Answers were gathered and analyzed under themed entities. Current state of brand awareness and environmental communication were studied, as well as opportunities and challenges of environmental communication in general. Current state analysis gave background information for future development. Results varied depending on the actor of the value chain: case company was seen differently among employees than outside of the company. Final conclusion was that there is a need to develop the environmental communication. Case company has environmental solutions for customer’s needs and a great story to tell, it is just about to communicate it to the target audience.

As we live in a world of limited resources facing multiple global challenges, like climate change, we will need to find new ways to sustainable produce and consume in respect for people today and the next generations to come. While keeping in mind the ecological limitations, the global economy needs to grow in order to ensure the prosperity of the people. The aim of this thesis is to examine, how the European Union Bioeconomy Strategies have influenced the progress of bioeconomy inside the Union as a whole and inside different Member States. The European Union published its first Bioeconomy Strategy back in 2012 and updated it in 2018 in the light of new regulations and discoveries. The aim for these two Strategies was to introduce bioeconomy better to the European Union Member States, and to encourage investments and new research to benefit all bioeconomy sectors while creating sustainable businesses and form a more innovative, resource efficient and competitive society. One of the main accomplishment of the 2012 Strategy was its influence on Member States, of which many started drafting their own Bioeconomy Strategies in correlation to their own strengths and available resources. This thesis will firstly look into the changes within the two European Union Strategies, secondly explore the Spain, Finland and Latvia’s Bioeconomy Strategies in relation to the EU Strategies, and additionally summarize the finding and compare the three Member States in question. Finally some speculations and suggestions are formed from the basis of these comparisons.

The concept of bioeconomy has been harnessed to support societies and their economies to produce value added products from renewable biological resources and to develop circular economy. Such systems require actions from a variety of actors from public and private sectors to consumers. As a heavily forested country Finland’s bioeconomy leans largely on the utilization of forests. Planned pulp and paper industry investments call for end-uses for logs to balance out the wood supply. Both forests and the construction sector are also focal areas in climate change mitigation. Wooden multistorey construction (WMC) and its capability to store carbon has been suggested as a partial solution to the aforementioned issues. The aim of this study is to investigate the relation of WMC and the bioeconomy and the role of end-users in WMC. This explorative study uses qualitative research methods to address its research ques-tions. The data consists of seven focus group interviews conducted in the metropolitan area of Helsinki between September 2017 and February 2019. The interviewed groups, with altogether 26 participants, included an academic expert group, three market actor groups (firm representatives, architects and property managers) and three wooden multistorey resident groups. The residents’ type of housing included rental, owner-occupancy and right-of-occupancy and the buildings were built between 2015 and 2017. Thematization was used for data analysis. Results of the study show that despite Finland’s close-knit relation to its forests and traditions in utiliz-ing wood, WMC is not currently perceived culturally embedded as part of the society nor the construc-tion industry. WMC is still a niche in the country and it also seems more connected to mechanical wood industry than the construction industry. WMC was associated with the bioeconomy by non-resident groups, although experts recognized also potential pitfalls in the current discourse. Percep-tions that were aligned with the general discourse of the bioeconomy are mainly related to material renewability, possibilities to recycle wooden construction material, wood products capabilities to store carbon, and Finland’s relatively abundant forest resources. Despite WMC’s publicly declared role in the bioeconomy programmes, some underlying features make its rationale challenging for consumers, which could turn out to be a hindrance for WMC growth in the future. Generally, experts, firm represent-atives and architects were pro-wood and considered that WMC is still being unjustly stigmatized by various actors. In accordance with previous studies, the interviewed WMC residents were satisfied with their apart-ments and the building as such. A wooden frame does not seem to surpass traditional housing prefer-ences of consumers, but it is perceived as a benefit when choosing housing. Results of this study are much in line with previous findings, which indicate that environmental aspects matter, but not as much as health or other more personal aspects of living. Wood can be sensed in the building and apart-ments, which is perceived positively. However, the prevailing fire safety legislation, which was consid-ered as too strict, constrains the use of wood on visible surfaces in interiors. WMC seems to have an environmentally friendly image among residents, which however calls for better communication.

Sustainable forest management and forest certification is a global issue. They are particularly important in Vietnam where forest covers above 40% of the country’s areas. The thesis aims to anticipate the financial sustainability of PEFC group certification in central Vietnam through a comparison of the costs and benefits of certification, and an analysis of the Acacia value chain. The study sites are in three cooperatives in TTH province. The research approach is qualitative. Data are obtained primarily from observation, group focus discussion and semi-structured interviews with key informants from the management boards of cooperatives, farmers, traders, woodchip factories, furniture processing companies, and experts from governmental organizations and NGOs stretching from the north to the south. Besides, secondary data is collected from scientific journals, documents published and unpublished by the research institutions, and books. Results confirmed the potential of smallholder forestry in securing the sustainable supply of industrial timber and improving the livelihood of farmers by providing a new income stream. However, the contribution of Acacia plantation to the total annual net income is modest, mainly due to small landholdings. The smallholders in Central Vietnam face many bottlenecks preventing them from maximizing benefits from planted forests, including limited access to land, high-quality inputs, capital, advanced silvicultural practices, and fair market. Besides, they bear a high risk of exposure to extreme natural events such as typhoons and floods. These obstacle is also limiting the participation of smallholders in voluntary verification schemes such as forest certification. Engaging in forest certification is proven to create extra revenue for smallholders while reducing pressure on imported certified timber. The total costs of certification are affordable for smallholders if joining together under a single certificate. In Vietnam, forest certification is often associated with the planting of perennial trees for sawlogs and price premiums for certified timber. This scheme is argued inappropriate for smallholders in Central Vietnam, who are often described as high weather-related risks and financial fragility. Under the current situation, forest certification does not create tangible and intangible benefits for middlemen, woodchip factories and local carpenters. Smallholders and furniture processors are the direct beneficiaries. However, the circumstance is predicted to change in the future, resulting in the participation of all actors in the value chain in the forest certification. This study also suggests several interventions for expanding forest certification, starting from recognizing smallholder farmers as a distinctly different category of forest producers whose conditions need to cautiously considered when developing standards for group certification. Secondly, there should be a strong focus on capacity building for the group entity as well as raising awareness for members of group certification. Thirdly, linking smallholders with private sectors are not only attracting more investment but also widening market access for farmers. Additionally, it must be mentioned the importance of secure tenure, clear guidelines for implementing SFM and forest certification, incentive policy and cost-sharing mechanism on insurance and certification.

In recent years, the Laos economy – driven by the primary sector – has been growing fast, however poverty remains widespread. Economic growth is also influencing the livelihoods of rural people who account for 61% of Lao population and depend highly on forests and environmental resources. Many studies address the role of NTFPs in rural livelihoods globally but the total contribution of forests and environmental resources, and the associated changes in their access and availability, have generally been neglected, also in Laos. The overarching research question of this study aims to determine how dependent rural Lao livelihoods are on forest and environmental products by estimating their contribution in total household income and food security. The other objectives are i) to find out which forest and environmental products households are the most dependent on, ii) to compare NTFPs and timber in their contribution to livelihoods, and iii) to learn how the access to, and the number of, forest products has changed in the past and whether they are expected to change in the future. The primary data used in this study was collected in Mahaxay District, Central Lao PDR in March 2016. Altogether 90 randomly selected households were interviewed using semi-structured surveys in three sample villages purposefully selected along a remoteness gradient. In addition, two focus group discussions (one male and one female) and one key informant interview were conducted in each village to collect village-level background information. It was found that the sample households rely heavily on forests and the environment, especially for food products. In the most remote village 80% of the households would not have had enough to eat without the contribution of NTFPs in their nutrition. On average forest and environmental products contributed to 12% of the cash income of the households interviewed. The cash-equivalent value of subsistence income from forest and environmental products is higher than that of cash income from their sales all three sample villages. There were significant differences between the villages: the poorest village was also the most dependent on forest products for both cash and subsistence income. NTFPs were remarkably more important than timber for both subsistence and cash income. Bamboo shoots, firewood and mushrooms were the most collected forest products. Fallow was the most important land-use type for forest and environmental product collection. There was a strong decrease in both access to forest products and their availability in the past five years, and most sample households also expected the trend of decline to continue into the future. The kind of reliance on forests and wild lands described in this study is threatened by population growth, deforestation and forest degradation associated with Laos’ rapid economic transition. The strong dependency of the rural Lao population on forest and environmental income should be considered also by the Lao government in the aim for green economic transition.

Tieteen- ja politiikanaloilla on viime vuosina esiintynyt kasvavissa määrin mielenkiintoa biotaloustermiä kohtaan. Viime aikoina julkaistuihin poliittisiin dokumentteihin kuuluvat eri valtioiden ja kansainvälisten organisaatioiden kuten Euroopan unionin ja OECD:n biotalousstrategiat. Tähänastinen aiheeseen liittyvä tutkimus on keskittynyt lähinnä eri biotalousstrategioiden sisältöjen tutkimiseen. Lisäksi biotalouden määritelmään ja tulevaisuuteen liittyviä tutkimuksia erityisesti teknologisestä näkökulmasta on tehty jonkin verran. Tutkimuksia biotalouden sosiaalisesta puolesta, kuten sen eri sidosryhmien näkemyksistä biotalouden kehittymiseen ei sen sijaan ole juurikaan tehty. Biotalousstrategioiden onnistuneen toteutuksen varmistamiseksi on tärkeää, että eri sidosryhmät hyväksyvät biotalouskonseptin ja jakavat samansuuntaiset visiot sen tulevaisuudesta. Näin ollen on tärkeää ymmärtää miten eri toimijat käsittävät konseptin ja kuinka se mahdollisesti vaikuttaa heidän tuleviin toimiinsa. Tämä tutkimus auttaa hahmottamaan miten biotalouskonsepti ymmärretään Suomen kuitupohjaisella pakkaussektorilla ja millaisena eri sidosryhmät näkevät tulevaisuuden kehityksen. Tutkimus perustuu kirjallisuuskatsaukseen sekä laadulliseen analyysiin, jota varten on haastateltu 14:ää biotalouden asiantuntijaa. Tutkimus on ensimmäisiä laatuaan, joten sidosryhmät valittiin tarkoituksena kattaa sektori laajasti. Painotus asetettiin kuitenkin teollisuuden edustajille, jotta riittävä ymmärrys tulevaisuuden kehityspoluista liiketoiminnan näkökulmasta olisi mahdollista saavuttaa. Muita sidosryhmiä tutkimuksessa edustivat tutkimus, julkinen hallinto ja kansalaisjärjestöt. Tulokset osoittavat, että, sidosryhmien ymmärrys biotalouskonseptista oli samantapainen. Konseptin taloudelliset motiivit tunnistettiin tärkeäksi tekijäksi, vaikka myös ympäristöön liittyviä kestävyystekijöitä nostettiin laajasti esille. Keskityttäessä tarkemmin joihinkin aiheisiin, haastateltavien mielipiteet alkoivat erota toisistaan. Suurimmat erot hyväksyttävyydessä ja asenteissa löytyivät teollisuuden edustajien ryhmän sekä sen ja muiden sidosryhmien välillä. Teollisuuden edustajien näkemykset ulottuivat optimistisista näkemyksistä erittäin skeptisiin ja turhautuneisiin näkemyksiin biotaloudesta ja sitä kuvailtiinkin usein markkinointiterminä. Kuitenkin eri kestävyystekijöiden huomioiminen koettiin tulevaisuuden kilpailukykyä parantavana tekijänä. Muut sidosryhmät jakoivat positiivisen näkemyksen biotaloudesta sektoreita yhdistävänä konseptina. Tutkimus osoitti, että kaikki sidosryhmät on huomioitava biotalouskonseptin tulevaisuuden kehityksessä. Brändien omistajat koettiin kaikkein potentiaalisimmiksi muutoksen synnyttäjiksi, mutta heidän näkemykset puuttuivat tästä tutkimuksesta. Tutkimus keskittyi biotalouden operatiivisiin toimijoihin, jota voidaan pitää toisena tutkimusta rajoittavana tekijänä, koska se heikentää tutkimuksen luotettavuutta strategisesta näkökulmasta. Lisäksi osassa haastatteluissa ei päästy haastateltavan omien tarkoitusperien yli vaan haastattelut jäivät siltä osin pinnallisiksi, haastateltavien omia asemiaan suojeleviksi.

The purpose of this thesis was to study high school student counsellors’ perceptions of university-level forest science studies and perceptions of forest sector in general. Student counsellors act as an information source when choosing a career and further studies after high school. Furthermore, this study explored the communication and student marketing implemented by the department of Forest Sciences and the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Helsinki. The theoretical background of this study was based on the theories of organizational communication and image forming. The aim was to clarify how the image of forest studies and forest sector is formed. The data were collected with personal theme-interviews. In addition to counsellors, personnel from the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry were also interviewed. The data were analyzed by using thematizing. The forest sector was seen as a field of business that has been important to Finnish economy and society in the past. However, counsellors understanding of forest science studies were quite defective. Still, the employment possibilities were seen extensive, although some images of traditional positions related to the paper industry and wood trading emerged. The Internet is the main source of information to the counsellors and to the prospective students. Because of this, web-pages that are clear and up-to-date are important in student marketing. The experiences about the communication and student marketing implemented by the Faculty were few and more actions were wished. The image is that the whole Faculty offers several study possibilities. However, both counsellors, and most likely, the prospective students have very unsound conceptions of the possibilities. Both counsellors and the personnel from the Faculty described the name of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry challenging. The name does not define clearly what fields of study are included. Forest sector aims to improve the conspicuousness and the attractiveness of the sector among the young people. Based on this thesis, it is possible to say that the challenges with the communication and student marketing are related to the structured components of the communication, such as actions and messages. The impressiveness is low and there is a lack of resources. Even though the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, the Department of Forest Sciences and other members of the forest sector are investing in the communication, student counsellors are unfamiliar with the possibilities that forest sector offers as an education and as a profession. The collaboration between the university and other members of the forest sector can give the possibility to improve the communication and to accelerate student marketing.

During the last decades the wooden multi-story building construction in Europe has been taking steps forward. In 1990s Finland was still even with Sweden in wooden multi-story building construction but in 2010s Sweden’s wooden multi-story buildings have overtaken much bigger market share out of the whole market of multi-story building construction, where Finland have not succeeded. The wooden multi-story building construction has had some political pressure lately in Finland and even some of binding laws have been modified in its favor. In earlier studies have been found that municipal planners have a role in a process of constructing a wooden multi-story building. It has also been found that municipal planners have personal power to affect building in general. The purpose of this study was to find out the factors that create boundaries to wooden multi-story building construction markets and study municipal planners’ networks between these factors. It was also an aim of this study to survey the municipal planners’ attitudes towards wooden multi-story building construction and study the consistencies between the attitudes and networks. All the above mentioned were supposed to be viewed from a geographical angle as well. This paper is supposed to be an explorative and descriptive study because of the lack of earlier studies in the specific field of multi-story building construction. The theoretical framework used in this study was based on an egocentric network analysis to be used in exploring the connections of municipal planners to the other factors that create market boundaries. The attitudes and the background factors were surveyed with a questionnaire sent by email. The interpretation of the sample in this qualitative study was done by using a statistical approach. According to the results the municipal planners have connections to the other factors that create boundaries to the market of wooden multi-story building construction and both sides of a connection do keep the connection up. The amount of connections that the municipal planners have vary so, that the planners that work outside of the metropolitan area in Finland have more connections than the planners working inside the metropolitan area. The attitudes towards wooden multi-story building construction vary geographically so that planners working in the metropolitan area have more positive attitudes than the planners who work in other parts of Finland. Over all the attitudes were very positive. The results also state that between the attitudes and the amount of connections to the other factors that create boundaries to the market of wooden multi-story building construction does not have any consistent connecting causes. The amount of connections seem to rise hand in hand by age and years of work experience among the municipal planners.

The aim of this thesis was to study how different forest management regimes suits for forest recreation. The second aim was to study whether there is voluntary willingness to pay for forest structure transition from a even-aged structure to a uneven-aged structure in a municipality-owned forest. In addition, factors which affects the willingness-to-pay were under study. The preferred forest structure was examined by contingent valuation method. In the scenario of the survey, a case was presented where a mature forest stand could be transformed into a better suiting recreational environment. Different forest stands were illustrated by photographs and they were asked to be evaluated how they would suit for recreation. If the respondent preferred the uneven-aged structure over even-aged structure, then the willingness to pay for transformation from even-aged to uneven-aged forest structure was enquired. The survey was completed by 67 persons in Helsinki. Factors which affect the willingness-to-pay were studied with logistic regression models. In addition, a distribution of the willingness-to-pay among response alternatives was studied with the logistic regression models. The uneven-aged forest management was preferred as a recreational environment by 40 respondents. Results relating to recreational habits were in line with earlier studies. Earlier studies were compared to the findings in this study relating to landscape preferences and the obtained results matched well studies conducted before. The average willingness-to-pay, calculated from the data, was €19.75 and the median willingness-to-pay was €10. 40% of the respondents chose to answer zero for willingness-to-pay. Age and income were the only background variables which were significant at 10% significance level.