According to the Swedish strategy for forest protection, additionally 40 000 ha productive forestland will be protected in the county of Västerbotten, between 1999 and 2010. A national project was carried out to distinguish the proportion of forest with a high biological value, in all counties. The project resulted in demarcation of small landscape areas or small ?biological value regions? (bvr), with higher concentrations of forests with conservation values and red listed species than the surroundings. In Västerbotten, 26 such bvr?s were identified and the Counties Agency and Forest Agency in Västerbotten developed a regional strategy for forest conservation to standardize the forest protection process.

Municipal Real Estate Companies runs by a political boarder who makes decisions in large investments. In some cases the municipal counter have to take the decisions about big and expensive investments. A successful investment needs to be built on solid ground.Media has lately focused on energy topics as a part of the environmental discussion and the real estate companies tries to use the new technology that the market has provided. Energy investments in new buildings are not longer a small part of the energy saving program. Long-term investment demands needs large knowledge and awareness about the energy topics that have recently grown in the municipal real estate companies.

This report is produced with Nätraälven forest owner association. This forest owner association has been going through some changes the last years and therefore wanted to investigate what the members thought about the development. The main purpose of the study was to gain knowledge about the attitude of the members. The study was made with a questionnaire that was purposed to investigate the member?s opinion on their own cultivation and the view on Nätraälven as an organization. The questionnaire was sent to 110 members.

This examination project is an investigation about the opinion and comprehension for political engagement of four young municipal politicians. The purpose with this project is to describe and understand the pronounced comprehension for political engagement. There is also an intention to investigate the educational in discussing political engagement with students in social studies at upper secondary school. The method that has been used is ?map of conceptions? because of its appropriate way to elucidate the comprehension and understanding of a certain subject. Those four young municipal politicians see political engagement as the will to improve the community. There is also an importance to have a large engagement in more areas than just one.

On the night of the 26th December 2011, large parts of southern Norrland were struck by the storm ?Dagmar? that caused serious damage to the forests. In the past 10 years wind damage has become a hot topic after several major storms. Forest companies own 25% of the Swedish forest and thus influenced largely by wind damage. The main purpose of this study was to examine whether forest companies attitude towards preventive wind damage actions were changed after the storm ?Dagmar?. The result was developed by doing interviews with two forestry companies.

This essay studies the practice of both the political and the administrative leadership at the municipal level from the point of view of the politicians and the chief officers leadership role, and the relationship between politicians and administrators. I discuss and analyse how politicians and senior officials practice leadership, differences or similarities and if their practice of leadership raises any challenges in a democratic framework at the municipal level. I conducted interviews with the municipal political leader and the head of administration at the municipal level in Karlshamn and Sölvesborg. In the analysis I discuss communication as a leadership process which highlights ?enabling elements? and potentials of the leadership process.

? Does Karlstad municipality have adequate institutional conditions to make the best use ofthe citizens? proposals??The purpose with the thesis is to investigate if citizens? proposals lead to a broader politicalinfluence. To answer that, I have done a case study about how Karlstad municipal administers citizens? proposals. The research assignment is: Does Karlstad municipal have adequate institutional conditions to make the best use of the citizens? proposals? The perspective is a democracy perspective and the theory is institutional theory and policy process theory.A selection of citizens? proposals that have arrived to Karlstad municipal between 2008 and 2010 have been studied in detail to analyze how the proposals have been administered and if it matters how the proposals are phrased.

This paper replicates a test performed by Burgstahler and Dichev (1997), which identifies a kink in the frequency distribution of earnings for companies listed on American stock exchanges. Their claim, that the kink is evidence of earnings management, has however been dismissed as a methodical consequence. To address this concern, this paper not only replicates the test in general, but also performs tests on a split sample, where founding family-owned companies are separated from the others, since earlier research has shown that founding family ownership is correlated with less earnings management. The results are in line with the findings of Burgstahler and Dichev, with a significant kink in the frequency distribution in the general test. The findings also show that the significance of the kink increases in the non-family-owned sample, while it disappears in the family-owned sample.

The soil acidification and the pH-value of the soil have been discussed for many years. Many observations of the tree species effects on the soil pH have been done. We have discussed the effects on the soil surface pH-value with a birch (Betula spp. L.) admixture in Norway spruce stands (Picea abies L.).We have used data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory. We have also discussed how the wood production and the biodiversity can be increased in mixed stands, in according to the Swedish forestry act Skogsvårdslagen. Our sampling areas are located in Norrland, Sweden. The results show a significant correlation between an increased birch admixture and an increased pH-value of the soil.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how to use remote sensing data when making a forest management plan. The main focus of the study is to compare different methods to identify forest stands of a forest property, and by manual measures and estimates try to evaluate the quality of interpreting data. This report is based on survey questions sent to five different organizations working with remote sensing data. Only two of these where willing to participate in this investigation. The organizations where asked to analyze the same forest property and divide into compartments and make estimations of volume, basal area etc. in every stand.

? Does Karlstad municipality have adequate institutional conditions to make the best use ofthe citizens? proposals??The purpose with the thesis is to investigate if citizens? proposals lead to a broader politicalinfluence. To answer that, I have done a case study about how Karlstad municipal administers citizens? proposals. The research assignment is: Does Karlstad municipal have adequate institutional conditions to make the best use of the citizens? proposals? The perspective is a democracy perspective and the theory is institutional theory and policy process theory.A selection of citizens? proposals that have arrived to Karlstad municipal between 2008 and 2010 have been studied in detail to analyze how the proposals have been administered and if it matters how the proposals are phrased.

Large areas of Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) were planted in the 1970s - and '80s. The purpose of the fast-growing species was to increase growth and with short rotation periods allow a rapidly increased harvest level. Today a large proportion of the young forests owned by Holmen Skog, Iggesund are covered by Lodgepole pine and an active forest management is required to spread the harvested volume over time which is desirable by a market perspective. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the possibility of spreading the harvested volume of Lodgepole pine over time.

This report is prepared in cooperation with Södra, Norra Halland SBO. The survey gives the members an opportunity to influence the services and also gives the staff at Södra a hint of the member?s demands.Södra is the largest co-operative forest company in Sweden with over 50 000 members and is divided into 31 areas. Norra Halland SBO is one of them.A questionnaire was sent to the members and 516 (or 53 %) of them answered. Of the respondents 68 % were between 60 and 69 years of age.

Nature´s healing capacity is well known and is today an important asset in the protection against stress. Noise problems in cities and it´s green spaces are increasing which in turn provokes stress and in the long term can lead to cardiovascular diseases. To promote people?s health it is important that natural environments have good soundscapes, research show that visiting natural surroundings and listening to sounds of nature promote rehabilitation and relief stress. The purpose of this essay is to determine the value of rehabilitation in forests in Carlshem and Röbäck.

The brown bear population in Alberta, Canada has been decreasing, while the Swedish has been increasing and all the affecting parameters are not known. This study examined the difference in these populations to see if an explanation could be found in differences between the forest management. The aim of the paper was to see if stand treatments had an influence of brown bears habitat selection in autumn in Sweden and how the results can be used in Alberta. This was done by analyzing bear positions in Sweden with forest data, and comparing forest management data for the study area in Sweden with forest management data for Alberta. The results displayed that mature forests over 60 years that have been commercially thinned are selected by bears rather than forests over 60 years that have not been commercially thinned in.