Current issue: 58(4)
The paper elaborates upon various theories to explain economic development and restructuring in the forested regions of advanced countries. The concepts of communities based on the forest sector and the concept of restructuring are discussed before presenting the diversity of relevant theories. Different theoretical approaches in geography and regional and socio-economic sciences are analysed, and the paper concludes that each theory gives only a partial explanation of restructuring under certain conditions. This paper recommends that an explanatory framework should take into account – in addition to general explanatory factors – sectoral, local-specific and policy-related factors and the role of human agency in attempts to explain restructuring and development.
The profitability of forestry in the context of recent economic developments in Finland suggest a more systematic analysis of the profit and the cost structure of small-scale forestry than is normally made today. The domestic and international pressure on farming emphasizes the development of rural areas by means of other business than agriculture, in practice this may mean forestry. Financing in terms of the new law concerning agriculture requires projects to be profitable. Thus, the profitability of different lines of production, including forestry, needs to be reported more carefully than is the practice today.
A network of forestry bookkeeping farms covering the whole Austria has existed for 20 years. The organization and the operation of the forestry bookkeeping and the cost accounting system is based on the scientific cooperation and exchange of information between the organizations in charge. The practical experience and recommendations based thereon might be useful for Finland, when implementing a country-wide network of forestry bookkeeping and cost accounting.
The PDF includes an abstract in English.
This paper is a review on the development of sustainable forest management and what has been meant with the term in different times. The article summarises the birth of sustainable use of forests in the world and in Finland, and discusses sustainability in forest management, for instance from the point of view of one forest holding, large clearcuttings performed in Lapland, biological sustainability, business economics and overall planning.
The two introductory books written by emeritus professor William Duerr provide an opportunity to scope the research progress in the forest economic discipline during almost a quarter century. This paper gives a presentation of the books (Fundamentals of Forest economics, 1960, and Forestry Economics as Problem Solving, 1984), and the development of forest economics during the period.
The PDF includes a summary in English.
The paper discusses the evaluation of timber production policies with different income (timber drain) schedules. Special attention is given to the temporal smoothness of the income flow. A utility model is formulated in which the objective is to maximize a fixed consumption pattern, and money can be saved and borrowed at different interest rates. We thus have smoothness requirements only for consumption, the capital market then determines the smoothness of the optimal income flow. Present discounted value and maximization of even income flow criteria are special cases of the utility model. Consumption can be maximized by linear programming. A sample problem is presented.
The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.
In forestry, a classical method of evaluating the profitability of an outlay is to calculate the internal rate of return. If there are many outlays and returns over a period, analytical determination of the internal rate is difficult and requires simulation methods. However, if there is only one outlay and one return, the computation is easy. In this paper, some formulae were developed for practical purposes. The equations also show how the return changes as the ratio between the return and the outlay changes.
The PDF includes a summary in English.
The paper reviews the past research in the five major subfields of business economics of forestry. Although the twelve doctoral dissertations in the discipline distribute evenly among the subfields, timber production economics has gained the major weight during the past 10–20 years. The new forest products market development requires the focus be shifted from pulpwood to high quality sawn timber production. Maintaining the current market share requires effective measures to control the wood costs. The article proposes nine research projects relating to these market demands.
The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.
The object of the study was to give a tentative indication of the realized economic significance of the principal forest (forestry land) uses in Finnish Lapland. Data concerns the years of the 1970s. Nowadays timber harvesting generates a major part of the total value of production. Recreation (tourism) is in second place. Reindeer husbandry, collection of berries and mushrooms and hunting together produce, in the best years, an output value which is about one fifth of that of timber harvesting. Non-timber uses together produce a rather significant portion on the total value of the integrated forestry output.
The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.
This article is a review of Finnish forest research in the field of forest economics in the previous 50 years. Forest economics in Finland is comparatively young as an independent field of forest research. Not until 1922 was the office of Professor of Forest Economics established in the University of Helsinki. The Department of Forest Economics was established within the Forest Research Institute in 1928. The article presents the main fields of investigation, namely Finland’s forest resources and forest balance, forest ownership policy, forest legislation and forest taxation, forest labour, forest geography, forest industries and wood transport, marketing of forest products, and business economics of forestry.
The article is published in Finnish in separate PDF Acta Forestalia Fennica vol 70 no 9.
This article is a review of Finnish forest research in the field of forest economics in the previous 50 years. Forest economics in Finland is comparatively young as an independent field of forest research. Not until 1922 was the office of Professor of Forest Economics established in the University of Helsinki. The Department of Forest Economics was established within the Forest Research Institute in 1928. The article presents the main fields of investigation, namely Finland’s forest resources and forest balance, forest ownership policy, forest legislation and forest taxation, forest labour, forest geography, forest industries and wood transport, marketing of forest products, and business economics of forestry.
The article is published in English in separate PDF Acta Forestalia Fennica vol 70 no 10.
The article summarises the career of Eino Saari, professor of forest economics at the University of Helsinki on his 60th anniversary. He is the founder of forest economics research in Finland, and has developed the theory of forest balance. He abandoned the traditional static view of the forest balance and developed a new dynamic conception.
The Acta Forestalia Fennica issue 61 was published in honour of professor Eino Saari’s 60th birthday.
The PDF includes a summary in English and Swedish.
The article contains three parts and a summary. The first part presents the common foundations of forest economics and forest management. The second part critically discusses the concept of sustainability and the third part takes critical view on the theories on profitability.
The author concludes by stating that the literature shows there are some old principles of forest management that always arise when the forest science progresses. The economics of forest management has been neglected in the sense that it should be acknowledged as self and not as mathematical problem as it has been handled in many theories of national economy, e.g. land rent theory. The science seems the turn back to previous findings as they are proved right again.
The PDF contains a summary in German.
Studies by G. König are the main source for the profitability theories of forestry. He was one of the first economists developing the forestry practices more towards profitability aspects. His doctrine presented the first steps of current forest related trend of ideas and hence so significant in the later development of the discipline.
The article presents the life of G. König and two of his most important works: “Anleitung” (introduction) from the year 1813 and “Forstmathematik” (Mathematics of forest) from years 1835 and 1854
The PDF contains a summary in Finnish.
The article has two parts: the first are the common principles of forestry and forest economics and the second part presents different theories of forest economics. The aim of the study is to find out how the best possible economic result can be achieved from forest management and use of forest resources.
The first part presents the economic foundations of forestry; the division between following the concept of economic profitability in forestry and forest management; concepts of capital and operating result in forestry; and productivity and profitability. It discusses the idea of economy as a dynamic entity instead of static.
In the second part the different economic theories related to forestry and forest economics are presented. Theory on the highest interest on forest capital, theory of sustained yield management system, land rent theory, theory on forest profitability and dynamic economic theory are discussed.
The PDF contains a summary in Finnish.