Globalization, specialization, decentralization, and urbanization are changing social, economic, and ecological conditions for forest landowners throughout the United States. One possible response to these new and recurring challenges is economic cooperatives, an old idea being retooled and reapplied, keeping more of the power, control, and profit generated by natural resource extraction and management in the hands of private forest landowners and local communities. Detailed case studies were carried out on four cooperatives in the Southern Appalachian region. The objectives for this study were: 1) to develop a set of potential criteria/attributes/dimensions/benefits by which these cooperative ventures can be evaluated, 2) to document and understand what mechanisms, institutions, and people will contribute to the success of these cooperatives, 3) to document and understand what obstacles stand in the way of these cooperatives, and 4) to illustrate these findings using four case studies and summarize results in key challenges and keys to success. The four main criteria developed to assess the success or potential success of landowner and business cooperatives were economic feasibility, social feasibility, community enhancement, and ecological sustainability. The results of this study show that cooperative forestry endeavors such as those studied here are reaching out to forest owners missed by traditional service providers and outreach programs. They emphasize a different set of services coming from a different set of trusted sources and can build community capacity, improve ecological qualities, and enhance local economies; however, professional forestry, state and federal governments are only marginally involved with cooperative ventures. Additionally, nine key challenges that forestry cooperatives need to overcome were identified, and twelve keys to success defined. / Master of Science

The forest plays a large role both nationally and internationally towards a sustainable planet. Therefore, understanding non-industrial private forest owners’ preferences is important to achieve the environmental targets, since they are a large ownership group in Sweden. The present study focusses on non-industrial private forest owners’ harvesting decisions in Norrbotten. Furthermore, the study extends to analyze how the forest owners’ preferences towards promotion of ecosystem services are affected if compensation is offered. To understand the harvesting decisions of non-industrial private forest owners’, an empirical approach was used where a questionnaire was constructed. The data were analyzed through logistic regression. The results suggest that non-industrial private forest owners’ harvesting decision is positively affected by previous experience in the forest, days present in the forest, membership in a forest cooperative and a price increase of timber. Forest owners with economic objectives harvest more than owners with no or other objectives. No significant relationship between nature- and economic objectives in the harvesting decisions were identified. The results related to willingness to promote ecosystem services for compensation indicated ambiguous results.

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Nästan hälften av landets enskilda skogsägare finns i Götaland och tillsammans äger de nära 80% av den produktiva skogsmarken i denna region. Flera studier har undersökt den enskilde skogsägarens mål och handlingar men ofta saknas djupare kunskap om vad som ligger bakom dessa mål och hur eventuella hinder och utmaningar påverkar dem. I denna studie genomfördes 11 kvalitativa intervjuer med enskilda skogsägare i Kronobergs län. Resultatet visade att alla skogsägare hade i genomsnitt fem olika mål med sitt skogsbruk och att ett mål kunde ha flera olika motiv. De hinder eller utmaningar som nämndes rörde många gånger faktorer som storm, klimatförändringar, skadedjur, skadesvampar, vilt, politiska beslut och EU- regleringar. Generellt kommenterades hinder eller eventuella utmaningar som faktorer skogsägarna var medvetna om och tog hänsyn till men som ej utgjorde någon större källa till oro.

The future management of forest ecosystems play a vital part in both mitigating climate change and the conservation of biodiversity. In Sweden, forestry holds an immense social, ecological and economical value, where the majority of the productive forest land is owned and managed by non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners. An important component in the boreal forests that dominate Sweden are Ectomycorrhizal Fungi (EMF), a symbiotic association between fungi with roots of trees and shrubs, which play an important role in ecosystem services and forest health. In this study, I explore the considerations of EMF among NIPF owners and if these are connected to their values, objectives and management regarding forestry, and what types of incentives would be required to take EMF more into consideration in their practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain in-depth knowledge among owners of two management practices, Clear cut logging (CLC) and Continuous cover forestry (CCF). The results suggest that knowledge of EMF varied between forest owners of different management practices, where owners using CCF showed greater knowledge regarding EMF function and role in forest ecosystems. The considerations in regard to forest management could be related to ownership objectives and values, where owners using CLC showed more production-oriented objectives, and owners using CCF more nature-oriented objectives. The considerations of EMF in forestry differed between owners of different management practices, where owners using CCF showed greater consideration by the use of less intensive methods in their management. Practitioners of CCF had an overall greater conscious consideration of EMF by e.g. leaving trees. CLC owners may unconsciously consider EMF by following the recommendations of e.g. a forest certification. To improve EMF conservation, a carefully developed mixed approach regarding informational, economic and regulatory incentives is suggested to be used with regard to owner heterogeneity. Overall, this study contributes to an expanded knowledge of NIPFs owners' current and possible future consideration about EMF in forest ecosystems, and how these are related to their values, objectives and management practices. The results can be used to develop future conservation programs and advisory services for biodiversity protection aimed at various groups of forest owners.

ABSTRACT The law regulating what non-industrial private forest owners (NIPF's) can and cannot do within their forest holdings is an outline law. Thus the NIPF's have great opportunity to shape the landscape inside their holdings by their own will. Their perceptions of their holdings can thus be of great interest. This because information about their perceptions can predict change, and also bring about more understanding of the group as a whole. The aim of this essay is therefore to explore the NIPF's relationship to their forest holdings by describing their mindscapes. The data necessary to fulfil the aim was acquired from semi-structured interviews, done with five NIPF's in Västerbotten. The data was then analysed using thematic analysis, with the term mindscape as a frame. All of the NIPF's were living in the same municipality as their forest holdings. Seven themes in the mindscapes of the NIPF's were found: Everyday knowledge, human presence, the balance between human- and natural processes, change, feelings, the forest holding inside the rural landscape and to be more than one. Previous research was used to triangulate, and to better understand the mindscape of the respondents. The respondents could be divided into two of Ingemarsons (2004) typologies; Traditionalists and multiobjective owners. Where the mindscape of the multiobjective owners contained the most change.