Anssi Niskanen, Tapio Rantala, Olli Saastamoinen. (1996). Economic impacts of carbon sequestration in reforestation: examples from boreal and moist tropical conditions. Silva Fennica vol. 30 no. 2–3 article id 5594. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.a9239

Keywords: boreal forests; carbon; forestry; Finland; Philippines; profitability; tropical forests; forest plantations

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The impact of carbon sequestration on the financial profitability of four tree plantation cases in Finland and the Philippines were examined. On the basis of stem wood growth; the accumulation of carbon in forest biomass, the formation and decomposition of litter, and the carbon flow in wood-based products were assessed for each reforestation case representing boreal (Finland) and moist tropical conditions (the Philippines). Using different unit values for carbon sequestration the profitability of reforestation was estimated for a fixed 100-year period on a per hectare basis. The financial profitability of reforestation increased notably when the sequestered carbon had high positive values. For example, when the value of carbon sequestration was set to be Twenty-five United States Dollar per megagram of carbon (25 USO/Mg C), the internal rate of return (IRR) of a reforestation investment with Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) in Finland increased from 3.2% to 4.1 %. Equally, the IRR of reforestation with mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King) in the Philippines increased from 12.8% to 15.5%. The present value of carbon sequestration ranged from 39–48% and from 77–101% of the present value of the reforestation cost in Finland and the Philippines, respectively when a 25 USO/Mg C shadow price and a 5% discount rate were applied. Sequestration of one mg of carbon in reforestation in Finland and the Philippines was estimated to cost from 10.5–20.0 and from 4.0–13.6 USO, respectively.

Niskanen, E-mail: an@mm.unknown
Rantala, E-mail: tr@mm.unknown
Saastamoinen, E-mail: os@mm.unknown

Category : Research article

article id 35, category Research article

Tapio Rantala. (2011). Democratic legitimacy of the forest sector and nature conservation decision-making in Finnish print media discussion. Silva Fennica vol. 45 no. 1 article id 35. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.35

Keywords: legitimacy; democracy; policy evaluation; forest policy; nature conservation policy; national forest program; nature conservation program

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The study explores perceived democratic legitimacy of forest-related decision-making processes in the Finnish print media discourse. The data consists of the readers’ letters in four journals (n = 530), and the comments given during the preparation of the Finnish National Forest Program (n = 140). The objective is to identify the patterns of democratic legitimacy and respective performance evaluations of actual decision-making processes. The patterns can be classified as support for: (A) democracy and other forms of government, (B) different forms of participation, and (C) principles of democracy. The principles can be further classified into 1) core regime, 2) input, 3) throughput, and 4) output principles. Democratic legitimacy was found to be an important source of legitimacy in the public discussion since democratic patterns were found in more than half of the texts. The most common core legitimacy principles included freedom of speech, good national and international standing, forerunnership, and legality at national and international level. The central principles related to input legitimacy included popular sovereignty, a voice for the people, popular participation, openness, presenting alternatives, and urgency. The consensus and majority rules were found to be the most prominent throughput principles. Democratic output legitimacy included accountability, responsibility, cooperation, commitment, responsiveness, the possibility to appeal, credibility, comprehensiveness, and understandability. The findings suggest that among the writers of readers’ letters there is less contestation regarding the principles of democratic legitimacy but there are significant disagreements concerning the performance of decision-making processes. The negative performance evaluations were two times more frequent than the positive evaluations.

Rantala, Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland E-mail: tapio.rantala@helsinki.fi

article id 127, category Research article

Mika Rekola, Annukka Valkeapää, Tapio Rantala. (2010). Nordic forest professionals’ values. Silva Fennica vol. 44 no. 5 article id 127. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.127

Keywords: forest professionals; values; cognitive mapping; Nordic countries

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The present study analyses the values held by forest professionals in three Nordic countries: Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The data is from a large (n = 1113) internet survey that used cognitive mapping as a research tool, which is a novelty in value measurement. The questionnaire is based on the organisational value theory of Schein (1992), supplemented with relevant forest-related and environmental values. The forest-related main value factors were in the following order of importance: Expertise, Private forestry, Forest production, Nature conservation, and Tradition. The measurement included two kinds of cases: action values, referring to present decision-making, and ideal values, referring to decisions concerning future ideals. Most of the values’ scores were similar. Almost all values received higher scores of importance in the ideal cases compared to action cases, a fact that can probably be explained by constraints related to the professionals’ current working environment. Some international differences were also found: Sweden and Norway were closer to each other and both differed from Finland, where private forestry, forest production, and traditions are highly valued. Moreover, respondents working in industry were found to be slightly more production-oriented than other forest professionals. The study also revealed several weaknesses of the cognitive mapping method in measuring values.

Rekola, University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki E-mail: mika.rekola@helsinki.fi
Valkeapää, University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki E-mail: av@nn.fi
Rantala, University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki E-mail: tapio.rantala@helsinki.fi

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