The biodiversity of the Swedish forest has degenerated since the beginning of the 19th century when fire suppression and large scale logging first occurred. Together with a changed land use, these actions today have had a negative influence on many forest dwelling species, due to gradual reduction of natural processes, successions and different structures from the forest ecosystem. The Swedish Forest Act, together with different environment certifications, have today encouraged private persons and forest companies, among them Holmen Skog, to work actively to improve nature conservation. The aim of this study was to, by field inventories of already existing nature values, literature studies, recommendations from scientific reports and ecological gap analysis as a basis, make a management plan, for a non-production area, to conserve or improve the prerequisites for biodiversity. ?Storskogsberget? is located in the coastal area of Västerbotten County, 35 km from the city of Umeå.

Rapporten handlar om hur olika brandfarliga varor skall kunna kategoriseras med hjälp av parametern FIGRA. Syftet med arbetet var att kunna undersöka om det gick att använda FIGRA i ett större användningsområde. FIGRA är en förkortning som står för FIre Growth RAte och som belyser olika produkters brandtillväxt. Olika försök har genomförts med standardgods, kartonger med en bestämd kontrollvolym, brandfarliga och icke brandfarliga varor. De brandfarliga varorna var lacknafta, Hammarlack och Karlsons universalklister.

The Swedish FSC standard (Forest Stewardship Council) is a level standard used to certify forestry. All the major Swedish forest companies are using the FSC standard, and approximately 50% of the Swedish forests are FSC certified today. In the essay six items within the chapter on environmental issues and biodiversity are examined: the proportion of protected forest, the proportion of annually burnt clear-cut stands, the number of trees with large diameter, the amount of dead wood, the proportion of deciduous trees within a stand and the proportion of deciduous-dominated stands. The FSC standard states a level for all items, and the purpose of the essay is to analyse whether these levels are supported by research within the field of conservation biology. The validity of the levels of the six items is them discussed to evaluate whether changes are required to the next revision of the FSC standard.

Forest enterprises have always searched for ways to improve efficiency. For the past few years there has been an emphasis on stock-keeping levels. Increased demand for fresh round timber and the need to decrease the amount of tied-up capital has made the forest industry reduce its inventory levels. This has brought on a higher demand on the timber supply from the forest management districts concerning both delivery in time and assortment output. As a result, the flow of timber has fluctuated a lot with serious consequence for the timber supply during 1994.

The costs of logging and of transportation with truck are dominating the total cost of wood delivered at industry. To support the profitability for the members' forestry the processing and handling with the timber has to be as efficient as possible. Increased length of pulpwood in thinning is one conduct that can result in higher productivity and/or lower costs. The study is scaled as a system analysis with the aim to exemplify the differences between working with 3- and 4-meter as standard length of pulpwood, related to biological aspects, timber receipts, cost of logging and cost of transportation with truck. Important aspects are if the change is technically and biologically feasible and economically profitable.

It is essential to reuse- and recycles residues to decrease the amount of deposit materials and reach sustainable energy use. Two ways to work towards this is to recycle wood ashes to the forest as nutrient compensation and extract biogas from combustion of biomass.The aim with this study was to decide whether wood ashes that been used for biogas upgrading with accelerated carbonation also can be used as a nutrient compensation in the woods according to recommendations from the Swedish Forest Agency (Skogsstyrelsen).The ashes that were used in this study came from Johan Andersson who works at JTI in Uppsala, who also treated the ashes with biogas. The ashes have, in both untreated and treated condition, been analyzed in this study according to contents of elements, leaching properties, hardening properties and contents of crystalline phases, to evaluate what impact carbonation with biogas has on the ashes.The accelerated carbonation led to hardening of the ash, and decreased amount of CaO- and increased amount of CaCO3. The CO2-uptake also entails a dilution of the elements, and the content of nutrients and trace elements decreases. However the results show an indication of an uptake of S from the biogas to the ash, since the dilution had a smaller impact on S than the rest of the elements.

The increasing oil prices during the last years have made it profitable to use cereal grains as a fuel. When compared with wood, cereals contain higher amounts of Cl, S and ash. The Cl and S content makes the gases from cereal combustion more corrosive than gases from wood combustion. The goal of this master thesis was to find out the variation of Cl, S and ash content for oat grain grown under different conditions. Oats was chosen because in Sweden it's considered as the cereal with the best fuel qualities.

To build high-rise buildings made of timber has for long been limited by national laws, due to the lack of knowledge in engineering solutions. Frame structures made of wood has for a long time been associated with major fire hazards and consequently lower safety and this connection is still being made today. The increased environmental awareness in recent years has contributed to the exploitation of indigenous building materials, including wood from our own Swedish forests and has become increasingly common. Increased knowledge about how structures behave in fire and how they can be protected in order to achieve safe timber structures has resulted in a growing interest in these structures in the construction industry. Research in the area is constantly updated and new laws allow any number of storeys in wooden buildings in Sweden as long as the performance requirements are fulfilled.The main part of this work has involved calculations of the fire resistance and load bearing capacity of floor and wall constructions.

The main goal with this thesis report was to come up with ideas of how to make the use of energy more effective and thus save money for the company.First a survey was made to find out where and how the energy consumers were divided within the company. The results were then used in calculations to find out how much money that could be saved and how long it would take to get back the investments.There is a big potential in saving money by recovering heat from the UV-lamps with a heat exchanger. It would also even out the pressure in the factory which is a source to heat loss and a cause for discomfort amongst the employees. It?s possible to save 105 000 kr in a year and the money needed for the investments is 600 000 kr.By using the recovery air more effectively the company could save up to 250 000 kr a year in lowered heat purchases, but this would require the use of automatic dampers.If you reschedule the running times for the wood chipper and invest in some kind of load management, for example Sydkraft?s ?Energidirigent? you can save at least 42 000 kr.

The efficiency of the harvesters work is more often reviewed, than the work of the forwarders. In a local Stora Enso office the differences between the harvesters reported volume of timber, and the actual volume delivered to the industry had been noticed. Therefore, the decision was made to do a review on the forwarders work. The review was conducted together with a worker from Vmf Qbera, who is working daily with wood measurement, in order to get a valid evaluation of the logs. Eight sites were included in the survey, and on each site 50 logs were marked. Approximately one third of the marked logs were pulpwood, and the remaining logs marked were timber.

The Sitting while waiting for sustainability project goal was to make a functional model for a resting chair and to make it by using furniture and artefacts as material. A try of understanding the process of re-design and to use it to design was driving the project through. The result was a prototype made out of a bed frame and 18 pair of jeans and with details made out of leather..

The last century, forest fires have decreased in frequency due to efficient fire-suppression along with the growth of the industrial forestry. Since 1990, fire has been reintroduced under controlled forms to recreate burnt habitats. Many species that are dependent on, or benefits from, forest fires have increased since fire was reintroduced. The importance of connectivity is often addressed in ecological research. This is particularly important for species dependent on short-lived habitats such as burnt forests.

Our purpose in this paper is to examine if there is any profitability for a company with a factory in the timber industry to invest in a combined heat and power, CHP. Based on analysis and the results that the paper generates, we will give Derome AB a suggestion on how it is a profitable investment or not to installing in a CHP.By investing in a CHP plant, you can get a high efficiency, which means that companies can use their resources more effectively. The Swedish wood industry has by-products of production that can be used for combustion in their boiler which is an advantage.The essay is a qualitative study where we have a case company, Derome AB. In this company, we interviewed two employees who have knowledge in the study. They have helped us to provide information and data about their business.We chose to use the pay-off- and the net present value method, NPV, to see if there are profitable advantages for the investment.

This study was conducted on behalf of SCA forest AB, Västerbottens forest administration. Timber procurement from non-industrial private forest owners has become an increasingly important part of SCA:s wood supply. The objectives of this study was to report the current forest conditions in the private forests in the county of Västerbotten, analyse the potential for procurement of wood from private forest owners, and provide a basis for decisions on future strategies for timber procurement from private owners.Material and data have been collected from different sources, mainly from Swedish National Forest Inventory and SKA-VB08. This material was the basis for the analysis and calculations performed with the Heureka application PlanWise. This study area was divided into six different analytical areas (Coastal south, Coastal middle, Lycksele, Inland south, Inland north, Skellefteå), where each area of analysis is represented by a number of municipalities.In this study, two scenarios were specified; one describing the current forest management with current harvesting levels and the effects of these assumptions, the second to illuminate what potential there is for future timber harvesting.

The driving forces from the forest owners point-of-view was studied on a market where several buyers attend to procure round-wood. It was concluded that forest owners prefer personal contacts to other means of communication, but that it is essential that the initial contact is a personal letter on paper. Furthermore, although price is always important, long standing relations is asked for. The buying companies need skillful experienced buyers that can provide more than just quick closures of deals..