 Norwegian forests are economically important both on national and on regional level. Aggregate production value in this branch is about 40 billion NOK, i.e. 5 billion € and it contributes to maintaining rural areas alive all over the country. Therefore the objective for the forest policy of both the Government and the Parliament has been to stimulate activity in the forestry business. This is also the purpose of the action campaign initiated recently by the Norwegian forest owners' cooperative i.e. to increase forestry investments and timber felling in Norwegian forests.
The challenge posed by the climate change further increases the importance of an active forestry. Growing forests bind carbon dioxide. Use of wood as bioenergy and materials also reduces the need for using fossil fuels. On that basis investments will be made for increasing production, felling and use of timber under the auspices of Norwegian climate policy.
The Norwegian forest owners’ cooperative
The Norwegian forest owners’ cooperative consists of the Norwegian Forest Owners’ Federation, 8 district co-operatives and 340 local societies with a total of 38,000 forest owner members. This organization represents 80 % of all felling in Norway, it provides guidance and instruction services all over the country and it gives Norwegian forest owners information about the timber market, forestry and forest management. The organization now intends to work for an even more effective exploitation of the opportunities that forests can offer. That is the background of the action campaign "Time for Forestry" in the period 2008 - 2010.
The objectives of the campaign
The objectives are twofold; increasing investments in forest management and to increase felling of timber in Norwegian forests. The campaign will be implemented in line with the Living Forests Standard for a sustainable forestry. The Living Forests standard constitutes the basis for certification of Norwegian forestry.
The forest owners’ cooperative has set the following targets for its activities in 2010:
- planting will be increased by 50 % to 30 million saplings,
- management of young stands will be increased by 80 % to cover 45,000 hectares,
- timber felling for industry will be increased by 20 % to 9 million cubic metres per year
A further objective is to increase the supply of wood for bioenergy. The framework conditions for bioenergy production will determine how big that increase can be.
Furthermore, the campaign will constitute the basis for
- increasing the supply of timber for industry to 10 million cubic metres per year before 2014,
- increasing the supply of firewood and other energy wood to 8 million cubic metres per year before 2014,
- increasing forest production in Norway by 15 % in the long term.
In order to achieve the targets set in the campaign, the forest owners’ cooperative will put emphasis on the following measures:
- increasing capacity, for example forest machine entrepreneurs, work managers and forest workers, so that all interested forest owners can accomplish their plans on planting, clearance of young stands and felling,
- increasing knowledge and awareness both in the organization itself and among forest owners of the importance of active forestry and of how concrete measures should be carried out,
- getting the message and the offer through to all forest owners.
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