The main aim of this study was to investigate and compare different methods for the extraction of forest fuel from environments close to an archipelago. The study was based on relevant literature and published reports as well as personal communications. Forestry has traditionally been characterized by intense efforts to rationalize and mechanize the cutting technique used for timber and pulpwood. In line with the increasing importance of forestry, more concentrated efforts can be expected in the area of techniques and methods, especially for the above-mentioned product lines. In Sweden, forestry is of major importance and the Swedish economy and standard of living have mainly been created based on the revenues generated from it. Thus, it is vital that Swedish forests are harvested in an efficient and responsible manner. The demand for biofuel is growing and today accounts for 15% of total Swedish energy production, a share that will probably increase. This study is based on three research questions, which are described under the heading of Aim. The results reveal that the most profitable method for handling forest fuel is the traditional one, which is also the most commonly used method in southern Sweden, namely the stockpiling of logs in a clearing by means of forwarders followed by splintering at the place from where they will be distributed. Today, the high cost of barge transport required for the extraction of forest fuel in an archipelago environment renders such operations unprofitable.

Many tropical rain forests has been lost or degraded as a result of human activities and environmental factors. Since the level of biodiversity is high in the tropics, maintaining these areas is of great importance. Forests like these are often assumed to benefit from forest restoration and rehabilitation. The INIKEA project area in Eastern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, aims to improve biodiversity and/or species richness in the degraded forest through enrichment planting with indigenous species. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate how different treatments (liberation, gap-cluster planting and line planting) affect the biodiversity of natural regeneration in different forest types in the Rain forest Restoration Experiment, located in the INIKEA project area.

Data retrieved from airborne laser scanning represents a new source of forest data. Today, the technology has matured so that it can function in an operational environment. The aim of this study was to compile areas of application of laserdata in forestry. Moreover to analyze costs and accessibility of laserdata. The goal was to provide private forest owners information to support assessments of possible benefits of laserdata.

Vallentuna municipality in Stockholm County, is planning to develop a management plan for a forest area owned by the municipality. The property is an urban forest and the hiking trail Roslagsleden runs through it. Hence the municipality intends to take extra care of the outdoor recreation interests, as well as forest biodiversity, but at the same time use the area for forestry. This study discusses how these three interests, recreation, biodiversity and forestry, differ in their views of how a forest should be managed, where they disagree and how they can coexist in the management of this area. In this study, a vegetation mapping of the area and an assessment of the forest?s conservation values was carried out.

During the twenty-first century the price of forest land in Sweden has increased heavily. Buying forest land has become more common and the stakeholders have grown in number. The countries around Sweden have through the globalization become connected in the market of round wood and wood products. The price of forest land and round wood are also close connected. The goal with this report is to make a comparison of forest land prices between Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia and Latvia and to see how the prices have developed in the period 2000-2011. The prime factor in the comparison, except the direct price difference between the countries, is the round wood prices. The round wood prices give information about the economic situation in the countries and play an important role in the return on the forest land. The prices of forest land shifts heavily between the countries.

This Masters thesis is performed at the request of the National Board of Forestry in order to investigate how the Swedish municipalities use their forests. The study is of general character with emphasis on the social values of the forests. The municipalities? purposes with their forests have varied over time, but lately the social aspects have been recognised as interesting. The social values of the forests can be defined as the values from the forests that contribute to the wealth of humans. This has socio-economic importance for the municipalities. The study was performed as a quantitative questionnaire survey, complemented with qualitative interviews.

Reporting harvested and forwarded volumes are important for the forest industry as it provides information of the size of the stock and facilitates logistics. Figures from Holmen Skog show low reporting frequency. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reason and find suggestions for improvement. A total of 17 machine operators were interviewed using a questionnaire combined with open questions. The results show that the majority of the machine operators find it simple to use the reporting system, although, some of them reports that it doesn?t always work as supposed to.

The countries in the European Union have agreed to increase their percentage renewable energy sources to 20 %. To reach this goal an increase of biomass production needs to be made. One way of achieving this is by using nonnative species. Poplar in Sweden produces biomass faster than the domestic trees. In the southern parts of Sweden plantations has been made with good results. In the northern parts survival is a problem that needs to be solved before plantations can be made for commercial use.

This report is a thesis work for a B.Sc. in Forestry at the School for Forest Engineers, SLU. The aim of the work was to compare two different pricelists with the actual output from a harvester. The results have also been compared with a volume estimate of standing trees done by the Swedish Forest Agency and the ?true? value registered by the Wood Measurement Association. The study confirms that the output calculated by the computer on the harvester is more reliable than the volume of standing trees estimated by Swedish Forest Agency. .

Due to the growing population in Stockholm, some of the urban green areas are beingsubjected to exploitation. Hammarbyskogen is an urban forest in the south of Stockholm andis an example of a green area that is planned to be transformed into an urban environment.This paper investigates key qualities and values of an urban forest of Hammarbyskogenvalued by local inhabitants of the neighbourhoods of Hammarbyhöjden and Björkhagen in thesouth of Stockholm. In addition to that, the study seeks to investigate people?s perception ofthe planned development of the forest as well as investigate how these perceptions andqualities are being incorporated into the process of neighbourhood development.Using text analysis, interviews and discussion forums, findings have been made showing thatthe local inhabitants value the urban forest mostly for its ecological and recreational qualities.Regarding perception of the change, people are either positive or negative to the developmentwhich can be explained by people?s experienced sense of place and place attachment of thearea and the forest itself. The study has also shown that the urban planners rely on localinhabitants? view, as well as on expert knowledge during the process of planning.The results of the study contributes to a better understanding of why and for what purposesurban forests are important for the city dwellers..

Lean Production is used by many manufacturing companies. Companies in process industries do not use Lean Production to the same extent today. This is part of the report's issue to explore how Lean Production can be applied to a company in the process industries.The investigated company is a processing company that manufactures various types of foil. The company wishes to streamline its production and has therefore asked the authors to examine if Lean Production can offer the company improvements in their production. Lean Production value stream mapping tool has been selected to identify and analyze the current state of two of its products in production.

The objective of this study was to contribute with suggestions of nature preservation managements of selected forest objects of high nature values managed by the Swedish state-owned forest company Sveaskog. Many forests with high natural potential are relatively rare today due to modern forestry, where wood production is the main purpose. Sveaskog?s policy is to consider and to priority nature conservation on valuable objects. This assessment includes objects that in the future may develop into nature reserves.

During the past 20 years, the price of forest estates in Sweden has raised more than the price of timber. The purpose of this study is to investigate if it, despite this development, is possible to buy a forest estate based on economic grounds. Different forest parameters will also be studied to analyse their effect on the profitability. The study is done in cooperation with the company LRF Konsult. Purchase price of 34 forest estates near the coast of Norrbotten, Sweden, has been compared to yield valuation. For the valuation, guidelines from the Swedish author Lantmäteriet was used.

The market value of forest properties can be assumed to consist of two components, a monetary factor and a non-monetary factor. The objective of this examination paper is to study the impact of non-monetary factors on the values of forest properties in Sweden. This study is based on a population of buyers of forest properties in the southern of Sweden. The results are based on interviews with 54 buyers. Of the purchases were 37 % new purchases.

Due to soft grounds in combination with seasonal variation in soil humidity, there is a lack of stands that are possible to cut during spring and autumn in some geographical regions. For Holmen Skog this sometimes means that a large proportion of the contracted private forest is cut during the winter when the ground is frozen. One consequence of this is that the proportion of winter stands in the stand bank of own forest increases while spring and autumn stands becomes a scarcity. This in combination with milder winters, especially when there is a long period of reduced bearing capacity in spring or autumn, means that the situation rapidly can become critical. The overall goal with this study was to generate basic data for decision support in the work to achieve a sustainable distribution between own forest and contracted private forest in the stand bank. The study took place at Holmen Skog, district of Umeå, during autumn 2007 and was based on interviews and an analysis of harvest planning and delivery data. The study showed that there is a problem with how the cutting is distributed between own and contracted private forest during the year and that it foremost is the proportion of winter thinning of own forest that has increased in the stand bank.