Browsing by Subject "panel data"
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(2009)Outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism have increased during the last ten years. In addition, the interest towards national parks has grown, which can be seen also as an increasing trend in the development of the number of visits to national parks. The aim of this thesis is to explain the cross-sectional variation in the visitation data representing different parks and hiking areas. Another aim is to explore the question of why the visitation in national parks has increased in Finland. These questions are studied separately for the national parks and hiking areas, because the development of the number of visits in national parks and hiking areas has been different. In addition, the separation is made also between Southern Finland and Northern Finland due to for example the size differences and close link of the national parks in Northern Finland with the ski-resort centers. Explanatory factors are divided into supply side factors (services inside and outside the park) and demand side factors (economic and demographics factors). The data is a panel data, including all national parks and hiking areas in the time period 2000?2008. The one-way fixed effects model is used in the regression analysis. According to results the land area of the park, services inside the park and population size seemed to have positive effects on the number of visits. Income per capita had negative impact on the visits. In Southern Finland the size of the age-class 65?74 affected positively the number of visits, whereas the effect of gasoline price was negative. Used time period was short due to the lack of appropriate data. Thus, the results reflect more the cross-sectional variation between parks. Results can be used in the planning of the management of national parks and hiking areas.
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(2010)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.
Now showing items 1-2 of 2