pcSKOG-gård is a computerised manager plan for private forest owners, developed by the pcSKOG AB. The program is based on forest stand data, joined with a map of the forest and GIS-applications. The purpose is to offer a program for private forest owners managing the forest and with the possibility of updating the actual status of the forest. The company pcSKOG AB is the leading producer of programs for forest management and has developed the program since 1997. The program is currently the most common program used by private forest owners in Sweden. The aim of this thesis, leading to MSc in forestry, is to investigate the purpose of the private forest owners when purchasing the pcSKOG-gård. The thesis also studies how private forest owners use the program, what they use it for and how the private forest owners state that the program has achieved to fulfil their expectations. The thesis is also a market research concerning the knowledge and attitudes the private forest owners have about the program and associated services. The study material has been collected during two phases.

The annual demands for Forest fuels increases in Sweden. At present, large unutilized biomass resources is found in young, dense forests from which about five million oven-dry tonnes (ODt) (23 TWh) could annually be extracted as forest fuel. But harvesting small trees give high logging costs and new cost-efficient harvesting techniques are therefore required. The aim was to study the productivity of Vimek 608 BioCombi in forest fuel thinning of Lodgepole pine and to calculate the economy of the harvesting and estimate the thinning quality. The time study was performed in Åmarken in the county of Västerbotten.

The need of raw material does of course fluctuate but the long term view is an increasing demand due to the growing consumption of sawn timber products, pulp, paper and lately also biomass. This has led to a keener competition for wood. At the same time there is an ongoing structural change of a significant part in the Swedish wood supply market, the private forest owners. In 1992, 22 % of Sweden´s 335 000 private forest owner lived apart from their forest. In 2007 this figure had risen to 36 %.

Forest ebeaver is, equipped as a bio-energy harvester, approximately four and a half meter long and weigh just over two tons. The main purpose of this report is to find out whether a small machine like Forest ebeaver can be profitable used in early thinning. To find this out a study has been made using the machine to thin in a young pine stand..

Forest management plans have been sold to private forest owners by wood supplying companies for a long time. These plans are considered to be effi-cient tools to identify measures and wood volumes, and are simply a starting point for discussions between private forest owners and round wood pur-chasers. However, large variations are observed between different purchas-ers, in their usage of the plans. The purpose of this report is to identify to what extent a forest management plan can promote an increase in the amount of wood which a round wood purchaser can obtain and to find differences in the way of using the plans between different wood purchasers. Furthermore, the purpose is also to ana-lyse if varying owner structures can be underlie variations in the selling of forest management plans. Qualitative interviews with nine of Stora Enso?s round wood purchasers were performed.

This study is done on behalf of Södra skogsägarna in the autumn of 2012. The main purpose of the study is to get an explanation to why some of the members are passive in their forestry, and how Södra can stimulate them to become more active. To achieve this a questionnaire study was conducted on the members of Södra in the community of Gislaved. The result of the study shows that there are many different factors that influence whether the forest owner is active or not. Examples of those factors are timber prices, the forest owner's objectives and the forest owner's financial situation. The main goal for the forest owners in the survey was to obtain high economic result and to increase the standing timber volume for the next generation.

This study shows the historical development of the forests in Hornsö and Ebbegärde state forest area in eastern Småland situated in southern Sweden..

This report has been done in collaboration with SCA Skog, Norrbottens Forest Management Area. The purpose of the survey is to try to find out what the forest owners who either live in Norrbottens Forest Management area or outside but has their forest holdings in the administrative area has the vision of SCA Forest and their forest services offered by the administration. But also to find out the presences of other timber buying players who procures timber in the administrative area. This study seeks to determine if there are deficiencies that may need changes or improvements to the prevailing conditions in Norrbottens management area. The literature study is about how to design a questionnaire based on what you want to know and what to consider in order to eliminate the problem of constructing a questionnaire. A questionnaire was sent to 400 randomly selected forest owners who have their forest holdings within SCA Forest Norrbotten Management Area. And of the 400, it was 181 respondents with 39 women and 138 men.

The main purpose of this essay is to examine if it is possible to identify farms of ?forest Finnish? people in Sweden, by means of an archaeological analysis, comparing the forest Finnish settlement with known none-forest Finnish settlements. This study is based on material excavated from the farms of Grannäs, and Råsjö, in the Swedish provinces of Jämtland and Medelpad. Both farms are dated to the 17th and 18th century. The study itself is divided into three parts, firstly a general study to get an overview of the material, secondly a study of ceramics as an attempt to discern social status and lastly a study of the animal bone material for analyzing the forest Finns? livestock and possible hunting habits.

Sweden is in the initial phase of forming a national forest programme (nfp). The establishment of an nfp has been evoked by international policy developments and a national debate questioning Swedish forestry and forest policy. National forest programmes are participatory processes for the development and implementation of forest-related policies and international commitments. Hence, the aim of this master thesis is to assess the stakeholders? acceptance of participation and integration of international issues within the Swedish national forest programme.

The Swedish government has set up 16 environmental goals for Sweden to achieve. One ofthem is ?Living forests?, which is the foundation for the ?National strategy for the formalprotection of forests?. The ?National strategy? puts the private forest owner at the centre ofattention in order to achieve the environmental goal ?Living forests?.

Ethanol fuel is a biofuel, which been widely reported in the public debate and on the fuel market the last years. Ethanol is sold as both E85 and as a five percent admixture of all petrol sold in Sweden. Research studies on ethanol fuel often focus on environmental issues surrounding the production and utilization of ethanol as a fuel, and omits the private and business aspects of the subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the economics of ethanol as a fuel. How the Swedish market for ethanol is and how it evolved over time and what the future prospects are.

The study has been done on behalf of and in cooperation with LRF Konsult. The purpose of the study was to try to find out how forest estate buyers valuated different parts of the estate at the time of the purchase and to see if it was possible to identify different trends between different kinds of purchasers. The study is delimited to Västerbotten County and all the purchases were made thru LRF Konsult. The background of the study is that the forest estate purchasers are paying more and more for the forest estates. The prices are often much higher than the net present value which means that they are paying for something more than just the timber value. The study is made with a questionnaire mailed to one hundred forest estate purchasers. Answers got returned from 48 of them.

In this master thesis we suggest a recreational directed forest management plan for the Skedalaskogen. The forest is situated 10 kilometres east of the city of Halmstad and is owned by the municipality. We have in literature and in research investigated what people like and want in the forest, how to manage the forest for recreation according to for example tree species, mixtures and density. We tried to adapt the forestry methods more to recreational thinking. We have also looked at issues like what is rare and not rare in this part of the country according to nature and forest, where people live and which connection they have to the Skedalaskogen. The Skedalaskogen is a quite big area, totally 830 hectares. The area have about 100 000 visitors a year.

During the period 1952-2008, real prices of wood before taxes and charges declined. However, the actual net income has not changed by the same percentage as the price list, because taxation, driving costs and the ability to make deductions has changed. This report considers the inflation by using the Swedish consumer price index. Net income refers to the remaining income when relevant costs, taxes and fees have been paid.The purpose of this study was to examine how the private forest owner's real net income has evolved over the period 1952-2008 for three categories of forest owners. These three categories are1.