Today, a large proportion of wood supplied for the Swedish forest industry is bought from private forest owners while forest companies at the same time provide the forest owners with services such as logging services and transportation. Today, forest companies work extensively with keeping the time used for transport and logging short. But what does the private forest owners think about the time required for the timber deal, also called lead time, and the different parts of the timber deal. In this thesis, the forest owners? perception of the different lead times in their contracts with Stora Enso and their communication with the purchasers is examined.

This Master thesis is performed at the request of the forest company Mellanskog and the local municipality of Borlänge in Sweden and aims to establish recreational adjusted forest management plan for the areas of Mellsta and Skräddarbacken in Borlänge. In all types of urban forestry it is very important that the management plan are accepted by the general public. To make sure that also these plans of future measures, pass in the public, interview studies have been performed in which the public wishes and interests have been examined and applied in the management plan. To make sure that future measures in the forest may be accepted by the public when the forest harvester enters the woods, it is very important that a well functional work of information has been made. The people living close by the forest shall have been informed a couple of weeks before the time of measures and it must also be good information available that explains what is to be done and why.

The world economy of today is in an extensive financial crisis which has lead to the fact that people seek well placed investments and securing of capital, something that by many people can be found in forest investment. The price of forest estates has increased with 90 % during the last 5 years and marketing polls indicate a positive belief in the future among forest owners. The development of timber prices has not increased to the same extent as the forest property prices which implies that the property price not only reflect the yield value from the forest but also that the lumber value does not have such a meaningful role in the pricing of forest properties as proven earlier. This fact means that forest owners either invest their capital in forest in a speculative point of view or that the purchasers of forest properties invests in non monetary benefits that lacks a direct yield value. The purpose with this degree thesis is to increase the understanding of the pricing of forest properties with focus on the above mentioned fact.

To be able to plan different treatments, accurate data is required. The collection of data is often expensive and that?s why the aim is to lower the inventory costs without loosing the accuracy of the data. Holmen Skog has in its strive to lower the costs, decided to evaluate two different methods for forest delineation, computer aided forest delineation and digital stereo view. This study?s purpose is to evaluate these two methods in regard to usability for a beginner and how good the delineation gets.

To better understand how various factors affect the establishment of forest and trees around the tree line-ecotone, this study was conducted in Troms County, Norway. The altitude of different forest and tree limits together with the surrounding vegetation type were collected during August 2011. Comparisons of the collected data were made with previously collected data from the same sites conducted 1914 and 1915. On average the forest limit has expanded with 26 meters in altitude, however, an expansion is not statistically significant for the whole area. The tree limit has significantly expanded in altitude.

Chinas government has a multifunctional program for a more sustainable forestry since 2000. This six key forest programs goal is to develop a more sustainable forest sector but also take environment consideration. The state forest administration in China has decided to create 5.8 million hectare of fast growing and high yield forest. Eucalyptus has showed to have good properties for pulp and timber production and therefore Eucalyptus plantations are under development in costal areas in southern China. By adding extra nutrients, growth can be enhanced in Eucalyptus plantations.

The NIPF (Non Industrial Private Forest) owners in Sweden have very differentiated goals and needs with their forest. They have different backgrounds and some of them live at their forest estate while other live in an urban environment, and some are economically dependent on their forest estate while others are not. The heterogeneity among these forest owners creates problems for market actors that want to aim marketing messages to catch their interest. This is the problem background to the task that was provided to us as an investigative masters thesis for us. Their request was a plan for ensuring a successful marketing towards different segments of the NIPF owners. We commenced with a literature study based on market information and previously carried out similar investigations. We summarized the most important market information from the literature and created some hypotheses regarding goals and needs of the NIPF owners.

The degree project at hand investigates how large areas of older forest (80 plus years) suitable for clear cutting there is on the Swedish island of Gotland. Large areas of older forest on Gotland are situated on land with shallow soil depths which are economically uninteresting and often unsuitable for clear cutting forestry. Other forests hold big nature conservation values and should not, or cannot, be used for forestry purposes. The survey is made as a GIS analysis based on the old but carefully made ?Brief forest inventory? (ÖSI) made in the 1980s and early 1990s. A sample from the inventory is combined with studies of orthophotos, satellite photos and other GIS layers that display estimated soil depth and nature conservation values. Partly contrary to common belief, the survey shows that there are still large areas of older forest suitable for clear cutting forestry on the island.

This thesis project focuses on the need for better tools for analyzing competition for forest fuels in Sweden, in particular how policy measures may influence the market and involved actors in different regions of Sweden. Raw materials from the forest have for long constituted important inputs in the Swedish forest industry. Today some of these raw materials are increasingly used as inputs also in bioenergy production, largely driven by bioenergy promoting policies, and there are signs of increased competition for forest fuels which may have various and uncertain effects on the industries in question. The thesis project explores the possibilities to adapt previously used forest sector equilibrium models into a new model suitable for analysis of Swedish forest fuel markets, called the Swedish Forest Sector Trade Model (SFSTM). The approach takes into account regional differences in supply and demand for 23 types of products produced and/or used by eight types of producers, plus consumers, in five different regions (four Swedish and one international).

The basis of road investments is to minimize the transportation cost. The forest industry wants roundwood to be available during the whole year. One way of determine which road to invest in is to do a cost/benefit calculation. SCA Forest lacks a uniform approach to determine the utility of a road investment. The goal of this report is to describe how the organization works today and find areas of improvement. The data collection was done through interviews.

To effectively manage a forest resource for both economic and other values good planning is required. The problem is complex since you want to know which forest to cut and when. Often a hierarchical planning structure is applied, including strategic (long-term), tactical, (medium-term) and operational level. Today SCA Forest is one of few forestry companies in the northern Sweden with an integrated forest wood supply and industry. The goals of the company are to supply their own industries with wood and to manage the resources of the forest through a long-term perspective with satisfactory profitability.

It has been even more important in the forest sector in recent years to look at the whole chain from suppliers to end users, to improve operations and improve performance and the profits of the company. The research and development have been concentrated on the buyer?s market and product development, probably because this research has capability to give an increased cash flow. But to obtain stability and continuity in the production and selling units, the suppliers should also be investigated. The aim of this thesis is to study a one company's existing suppliers of roundwood and investigate the differences and attitudes they have about the company offerings.

The forest property Fagerdal 2:10 was donated to the Swedish University of Agriculture in 1995 by Erik Rönnberg. The dominating species is Norwegian spruce (Picea Abies) and the average age is high due to selective cutting. The aim of this study has been to analyze how the forest on the property should be managed and demonstrate how a better estimated forest data affects the future management. The impact of the management on the carbon stock of the property was also examined. A forestry plan established in 2009 by Skogssällskapet was used as a basis for the analyses.

When the storm Gudrun hit Sweden on the 8th and 9th of January, many recreational forests in southern Sweden blew down. For this reason there is a demand for new regeneration methods as to how these storm-felled areas should be regenerated and with what species. In this study the forest is divided into three areas: production, recreation/production and recreation. The first area is a forest with production as main goal and these kinds of forests are located a bit from the city. The second type ? recreation/production forest ? has two equal goals: production and recreation, and is located close to the city.

Background: The hurricane in the south of Sweden in January 2005 was the worst storm in Sweden for the last hundred years. The storm named Gudrun has blown down forest that according to estimation is corresponding to one year of cutting down in the entire country.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe how credit granters act when facing falling forest real estate mortgage and describe if they will make considerations due to the storm in the south of Sweden 2005.Method: With help of a qualitative method, we investigated how the credit granters act when facing falling forest real estate mortgage. Interviews were obtained with three credit granters, SEB, Landshypotek and FöreningsSparbanken in the county of Jönköping and Kronoberg.Conclusion: The conclusion is based upon the empirical study, the analysis and our own reflections and it shows that the credit granters do not change their policy concerning credit granting to forest real estate properties. The policy of the credit granters has proven to be valid even in this extreme situation..