Current issue: 58(4)
The article describes various forms of international contacts in the Finnish forestry research and emphasizes the importance of this cooperation. The relatively small additional resources required to maintain contacts should be safeguarded. When considering the ways in which international contacts could be strengthened, coordination with the aims of the public and private sectors is needed.
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Since the year 1966, fourteen specialists, most of them forestry graduates from Kasetsari University in Bangkok, have studied or will start studying in Finland. The visiting graduate students have completed their program successfully, and are interested, as well as the Thai authorities, in continuing the educational cooperation. However, the Finnish Government now seems to have changed the list of countries which are included in this kind of program. The Thai authorities will possibly grant a limited number of scholarships for studies carried out in Finland. The possible need to develop the study program further is discussed if the educational cooperation with Thailand will continue.
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Since the end of 1960s some 350 voluntary forestry cooperation areas covering about 10% of Finland’s total private forest area have been established in the country in order to avoid drawbacks of small individual units. The aim of the study was to find out why most of these cooperative areas have been established in the area of northern Karelia forestry board district in Eastern Finland, whereas elsewhere establishing has advanced very slowly. »Soft» research techniques based on free interviews was used to gather the data. Attitudes of the interest organizations of forest owners and forest industry companies, question of organizer of cooperation, and resources for regional forestry planning were found as most important factors to explain the differences in development of cooperation in different areas.
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Nordiska skogsarbetsstudiernas råd (NSR, Council for Inter-Scandinavian Research in Forest Work Science) is the most developed organization in this field. It has only research institute members. The council started in 1953 and has since then had meetings and working groups. Among the latter, an Inter-Scandinavian and British wood nomenclature was created. In 1969 the organization will start a number of joint investigations, two of them in Finland, concerning utilization of waste wood and transport difficulties in forest terrain. Sweden will study branching, Norway relations between men and machines and Denmark broadleaved tree cutting and hauling.
Economists have since 1958 had an Inter-Scandinavian Seminar for Forest Economists (Nordiskt skogsekonomiskt Seminar, NSS), which has only personal members. Also, Inter-Scandinavian forest congresses have been held every fourth year since 1923, in which also research results have been presented.
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This paper gives an overview on international organizations involved with forestry and forest research. International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFFRO) was named in a congress in Stockholm in 1929, but the organization has its roots in a German association of forest experiment stations founded in 1872. IUFRO is a non-governmental organization with research institutes as members. As it has no permanent centre, and no own research institutes, its opportunities for carrying out actual research work are limited. A reorganization is being planned.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), established in 1945, has a division for forestry and forest industries. FAO is a governmental organization for international policy in agriculture, fisheries, nutrition, and forestry, and not meant for research work. It has nevertheless been compelled to carry out a great deal of research work, particularly in projects that have proved impossible for other organs. The Timber Trend Studies are the best known in the field of forestry.
World Forestry Congresses are occasions where all kinds of forestry problems can be discussed, and they have also stimulated research work. The first International Forestry Congress was held in 1926 in Rome, but several other international forestry congresses have been arranged since 1873.
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In addition to the research carried out by the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry of the University of Helsinki, the Forest Research Institute, and the State Committee for Agriculture and Forestry, applied forest research is performed in Finland by the Forest department of the Work Efficiency Association, Metsäteho, the Forest Work Study Section of the Central Association of Finnish Woodworking Industries, the Logging Technical Office of the State Board of Forestry (today the Development Section of the Organization Bureau), and Uittoteho, research body for floating questions in Northern Finland.
These establishments are concerned chiefly with the development of and experimentation with working methods, tools and machines in wood harvesting and with the analysis of wage and payment bases for timber preparation and haulage jobs.
An endeavour has been made to coordinate the forest technological research in these institutes and the University of Helsinki and the Forest Research Institute. Each institute is presented in a cooperation organ formed by the Society of Forestry in Finland. This organ also functions as the Finnish section of Nordiska Skogsarbetsstudiernas Råd (NSR). These bodies agree about the division of the research tasks and discuss the research programmes jointly.
In addition, some foundations give notable support to forest research, in particular the Foundation for Forest Tree Breeding, Foundation for Research of Natural Resources in Finland, and SITRA, the Fund for the Jubilee Year 1967 of Finland’s Independence.
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The paper discusses the cooperation between the research workers of the Forestry Departments, University of Helsinki, and of the Finnish Forest Research Institute. Although the fusion of these institutes might even seem to be justified in order to guarantee a coordination of the research work, no drawbacks exist in the present organization which could not be removed with cooperation.
In fact, cooperation has hitherto taken place in many forms both in teaching and research: working groups in the various branches of research have recently prepared a program for the development of research (Silva Fennica 1:4; 1967), leading scientists of the Institute act as lecturers at the University and some university teachers as associate researchers at the Institute.
On the other hand, in some cases lack of cooperation may have led to uncertainty and inconvenience of practical forestry. Therefore, a better system of information between scientists should be created and the continuity of cooperation strengthened. In conferences between the university and institute people, development work within the various fields of research should be cleared up with a long-range aim. The conference day of the scientists in the beginning of each year is mentioned as one possibility to start the cooperation.
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The paper deals with the possibilities of decreasing the costs of timber harvesting and silvicultural work through regional cooperation between private forest owners in Finland. Alternatives based on joint management and, on the other hand, joint ownership were compared with activities on a forest-unit basis. According to the results obtained, considerable savings in costs can be gained through cooperation on a regional basis. Examination of the data obtained from the study shows that in the case of harvesting some 40 million Finnish marks can be saved annually by application of the joint-management alternative, and as much as 90 million marks annually by the joint-ownership alternative, when taking the whole country into consideration. The corresponding values for silvicultural work were 2 million marks and 4 million marks, respectively.
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