Current issue: 58(4)
In world literature, there are many forests of significance, e.g. oak forest of Mamre and in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Finnish literature has abounded with forest topics since ancient folkore. We have a literature of floaters, loggers and paper workers of industrialized Finland, not to speak of a hunting literature. A major theme is ”from forest to town”, where the first work, Aleksis Kivi’s ”Seven brothers”, is a landmark in Finnish literature. Forests of many other authors are also presented, as well as ancient chants and poems.
The paper is based on a lecture given in the seminar ‘The forest as a Finnish cultural entity’, held in Helsinki in 1986. The PDF includes a summary in English.
Sawmilling and Carpentry, Forestry and Hunting, and Food Grains are the economic sectors compared in this study by means of the total input-output coefficient. The coefficient measures the value of direct and indirect demand in the economy caused by a demand worth one monetary unit on the sector in focus. Forestry sector has the weakest linkage to other sectors. The derived coefficients are 1.693 for Sawmilling and Carpentry, 1.183 for Food Grain and 1.167 for Forestry and Hunting.
The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.
It is possible to show that many of the after-effects resulting from the disappearance of forest cover were well known already in ancient times. The invigorating effect of moving around freely in the forest and its artistic creative ability were also recognized as well as the healing effect of coniferous forest on people suffering from consumption. Hunting and the use of forests for cattle grazing is also an extremely old practice. The so-called by-products of the forest such as tree bark and leaves, as well as berries and fruits, have played an important role in the history of mankind from the very earliest beginnings.
The PDF includes a summary in English.
Silva Fennica issue 46 includes presentations held in professional development courses, arranged for foresters working in public administration in 1937. The presentations focus on practical issues in forest management and administration, especially in regional level. The education was arranged by Forest Service.
This presentation describes administration and state of wildlife management in the state forests of Finland.
Finland possesses climatic and botanical conditions that can make it rich in game. Several species, for instance blue hare (Lepus timidus L.), squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris L.), red fox (Vulpes vulpes L.) and ermin (Mustela erminea L.), and several migrating bird species are distributed in almost in every parts of the country. Hunting is still unorganized, but restrictive regulations have been established, and the central organization of hunting clubs (Suomen Yleinen Metsästäjäliitto) has member clubs in different part of the country. There is about 70-80,000 hunters in the country. Hunting has influenced the abundance of many species. For instance, European beaver (Castor fiber L.) has been hunted to extinction, and lynx (Lynx lynx L.), wolf (Canis lupus L.), otter (Lutra lutra L.), bear (Ursus arctos L.) and wolverine (Gulo gulo L.) are threatened. Also the distribution of elk (Alces alces L.) is patchy due to hunting.
The article shows distribution and abundance of forest birds, and describes the six game zones in Finland. The game zones correspond the vegetation zones, and have distinctive differences in distribution of the game species. Hunting has previously been important livelihood in Finland, but has this role only in the north in Lapland, Kainuu and Perä-Pohjola, and near the eastern border of the country. The number of hunted small game in the hunting season 1933-1934 are presented by the species. The monetary value of the game is estimated at about 30-40 million Finnish marks annually.
The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.