Epsilon Open Archive

Abstract

This thesis is based upon five studies that assess the performance and success of the Swedish forest commons (FCs), by comparing their outcomes (in the present context) with the intentions and aims expressed by relevant officials and commentators at the time of their establishment. The overall objective was to contribute to the understanding of factors that promote development of local institutions that enhance forest conditions and local well-being (rural development). A quantitative, comparative, and case study approach has been applied, in which forest commons in several regions have been compared with one another, and with other property regimes within the same regions. In the first study, the state of the forests in all 33 forest commons was assessed, using National Forest Inventory data, and they were compared to other forests within the same municipalities. Results revealed that harvesting has been relatively limited in the forest commons in Västerbotten and Norrbotten. By a case study in a single municipality: forestry production parameters, sales revenues, operating costs and investments, disposable income and local municipal tax revenues were assessed. Results indicated that shareholders’ land was less intensively managed than non-shareholders’ land and thus contributed less economically. In the third study biodiversity indicators were assessed in all commons and forests in the surrounding municipalities. This examination provided no unequivocal evidence that forestry has been conducted in the commons in ways that have promoted biodiversity more effectively than in forests of other ownership categories. Fourthly, dividend data were compiled to assess and compare the extent of the economic support and its availability to support rural development in three FCs. The perceived contentedness with the contribution of each FC was also assessed. Results revealed large differences between the three cases, and a positive correlation between the extent of the economic support and its availability to support rural development and contentedness. The results obtained in the fifth study indicate that the government continues to have a strong, direct influence on the management of FCs in Sweden. Taken as a whole, results clearly reveal large disparities between the Swedish FCs and points out the importance of an enabling environment for successful outcomes of the FC.