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.

International negotiation is the link between international planning and implementation. The ability to negotiate successfully may very well depend on the efforts being put into preparatory activities, leading to the purpose of this research, to gain a better understanding of pre-negotiation in an international context, by exploring, describing and partly explaining the process. Personal interviews were conducted with two Swedish international companies to obtain thorough information within the area. The collected data from these two cases are discussed, compared and then finally used to draw general conclusions. The study indicates the different issues that either occur or should be considered prior to the first formal meeting in an international negotiation.

The forest is characterized by many different values such as those related to forest productivity which are of a big importance for Swedish economy. History has proved that forest resources had helped the country in the transition from the agricultural to the industrial society. Today Swedish forest industry is among the strongest in Europe and significantly contributing to the Swedish export. The industry provides many direct and indirect job opportunities and is one of the biggest employers in the industry sector. It is also worth to notice that the forest can also generate an additional income for the owners, even if the forestry isn?t their primary income source.

For a long time the Swedish forests were used by the landowner?s mainly for providing wood to the household itself. The wood was not, to a greater extent, considered a product to be sold. During the 1800s the industrial era led to a demanding need for wood in the industry and thus the use of forest, forest production kicked off. The forest production was not regulated by law, which led to a differentiated forest production over the whole country without consideration of re-growth.

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).

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 purpose of this study is to give a picture of the current status for the recruitment to forest machine operator educations in Sweden, how many the educators are and the outcome of this activity. The three at present different types of education are upper secondary school, polytechnic school and vocational school. The method used for the survey is telephone interviews, pre-broadcast issues were discussed and the responses were recorded. The results are then compiled and presented in linear form. The conclusions one can draw is that education is desirable and important. To get young people interested in forest machine operator education it is very important that the forest industry continues to develop attractive employment..

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.

Sweden?s forestry legislation was updated in 2010 and a new definition of forest land was introduced. This definition was adapted to the one used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for international statistics on the state of the world's forests. It is in short based on the lands ability to grow forest that reaches 5 meters, 10 % canopy closure and has a continuous distribution, according to FAO at least 0.5 hectares. A country-wide laser scanning is now carried out for the production of a new national elevation model; the laser data also provides information on forest height and density.

The question of whether there is soft law in international law has been as much the subject of contemporary debate as whether or not there is private legal authority in the international society. The legal boundaries seem to be blurred by the process of globalisation and the recent shift in international law. The traditional definition of international law has been outdated as new forms of treaties has introduced new subject of law to the judicial arena. At the same time a supplementary map of law has been added to the cartography of international law, soft law. These correlating processes have comprehensive political and legal consequences at both the international and national levels.

This report is a joint venture with SCA Forest, Ångermanlands forest man-agement area. The purpose of the study is that SCA Forest wants to know what the landowners in Ångermanlands forest management area think about SCA Forest and who they deliver their timber to. SCA Forest is the largest private landowner in Europe, with an area of about 2.6 million hectares. Today, SCA offers lumber, wood products, tis-sue and packaging and has factories all over the world. SCA Forest has five forest management areas in the north of Sweden, with the headquarters in Sundsvall. A questionnaire was sent to 265 landowners, where they had to answer 15 questions with possibilities to give comments. The survey was sent out on 21 of February with a response requested by 3 of March 125 landowners responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 47%.

This rapport is about how often private forest owners follow the measures proposed in their forest management plan. The survey is made in cooperation with the forest-owners association Norrskog. The private forest owners are relatively satisfied with the forest management plans and with the measures proposed. There are some differences between those who live on or near their property and those who live many miles away. The forest owners who live on their property are those who follow the proposed measure of precommercial thinning to the largest extent. That group also values precommercially thinned stands higher than thinned stands. The complete opposite is the case for the group that lives far away from their property. Almost all of the respondents thought that the forest management plan would be or had been a good help in the decision making about the forest..

The purpose of this report is to find out what different preferences forest owners have in the region where Norrskog have their operation area, what they prefer and think about Norrskog. The purpose is also to compare some of the questions to a similar study that was made in 2008. The study is made in cooperation with Norrskog which is a forest owner cooperative. Norrskog has about 13 000 members which is about half of all forest owners in the region. To get the answers from the forest owners, questionnaires were sent out by mail. 371 were sent out and 102 came back. There were more members of Norrskog that responded than it was nonmembers. The results indicate that the forest owners have long term perspectives, their priorities are to nurse the forest so they can get the profit later on.

This is a study on the outcome of the Swedish Forest Agency´s mission to provide individual advice to private land owners about precommercial thinning. The study was conducted in Sala municipality and included forest owners that had received private individual advice from a Swedish Forest Agency consultant as well as forest owners that had not received individual advice. One of the central issues was to make comparisons between these two groups. The survey was carried out by telephone interviews combined with a smaller field study. The questions were designed to provide information about to what degree the forest owners had been affected by the advice and if there had been a change in the way in which precommercial thinning was performed. In terms of the amount of precommercial thinning that had been carried out, no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups.

What impact and effects are created by the placement of an international ranking? Could it be that a top rank is detrimental to an entire country's efforts to fight corruption?This bachelor thesis in political science is about Swedish corruption. In essence, so questioning the Transparency International's indexed rankings that placed Sweden in third place. Issues concern since if the third placement has created nonchalance and a careless mentality in Swedish government and in particular in the municipal operations. Research results show that Transparency International's rankings have low validity and low reliability and that the government is not acting sufficiently to prevent and fight corruption.