Sammanfattning
The present study sets out to investigate the current state of cooperation among private forest owners in Lithuania, with special focus on their needs in the context of transition economy. The number of private forest owners has been rapidly increasing since the restoration of independence in Lithuania. Privatization of forestland has given rise to numerous problems, which call for a more intense cooperation of individual forest owners. Yet institutionalized cooperation in private forestry is a new phenomenon in Lithuania. Therefore the objective of the present licentiate thesis is to describe the current state of cooperation among private forest owners in Lithuania, analyzing their needs in relation to private forestry, organizational structure and the ways of establishing owners’ cooperatives. This licentiate thesis consists of an empirical study on needs of private forests owners and a case study of forest owners’ cooperatives carried out in Lithuania, as well as literature review on decision-making and cooperation. The empirical study identifies needs of private owners. The results show that the most appreciated functions of forests as perceived by the owners are provision of aesthetic and environmental protection values. The results also provide that due to the small size of their holdings many owners consider their forest holdings to be too small for generating economic advantages from the membership in a cooperative. The case study was aiming to identify the current status of forest owners’ cooperatives in Lithuania. The study shows that a typical forest owners’ cooperative in Lithuania counts up to ten members and does not pursue timber processing or other value adding activities. Moreover, it firstly seeks to serve non-members rather than members. The licentiate thesis also discusses development and importance of forest management through cooperation in Lithuania. It is concluded that the process of cooperation of private forest owners is rather slow though certain positive development trends can also be observed
Publicerad i
Rapport - Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Institutionen för skogens produkter och marknader
2005, nummer: 20
Utgivare: SPM/SLU
UKÄ forskningsämne
Skogsvetenskap
Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/6594