Kommunägd skog i Sverige : en enkät- och intervjustudie av de tätortsnära skogarnas ekonomiska och sociala värde

Sammanfattning: This Masters thesis is performed at the request of the National Board of Forestry in order to investigate how the Swedish municipalities use their forests. The study is of general character with emphasis on the social values of the forests. The municipalities' purposes with their forests have varied over time, but lately the social aspects have been recognised as interesting. The social values of the forests can be defined as the values from the forests that contribute to the wealth of humans. This has socio-economic importance for the municipalities. The study was performed as a quantitative questionnaire survey, complemented with qualitative interviews. All Swedish municipalities were asked to participate, but only 57 % replayed. The mean forest area was 1 893 ha among the municipalities that answered the questionnaire. The municipalities' main purpose with their forests was wood production followed by recreation. A big part of the forest management is performed by external contractors. About 25 % of the employed at the municipalities had a higher education in forestry. Only a few municipalities had performed surveys over the number and opinion of visitors to their forests. The majority of the municipalities had a forest management plan. The biggest obstacles for a well functioning forestry were the lack of long-term strategies and high economic demands. For the future many municipalities hope to be able to perform a diversified forestry with more focus on the social values of the forests. This study indicates that more knowledge is needed among the municipalities regarding the urban forests socio-economic possibilities. The municipalities could benefit from cooperation with other organisations when their own knowledge or resources are limited. It is important to carry out surveys regarding the visitors preferences to the forest, to be able to adjust the forestry management.