Raili Hokajärvi

Change in forest planner's advisory role

Abstract Urbanisation and related lifestyle changes, as well as the opportunities offered by new information and communication technology, are altering decision-making among family forest owners. Consequently, the approaches and tools of communicating with forest owners are under pressure towards becoming more customer-orientated. The present study looks at forestry advisory practices connected with forest management planning using the theory base and methods of activity theory and the active involvement of practical forestry professionals. Collaborative developmental meetings with a group of foresters were conducted in three organisations. A total of 22 sessions were held within separate developmental projects. Tacit knowledge and good communication practices were observed among the foresters involved in this. New flexible service models and improvements to current service chains were designed and experimented to support forest owners in their forest management activity. Analysis of experiences suggests adjusting forestry advisory practitioners’ roles. A more meaningful customer-compatible role of the forest planner fostering the planners work-related well-being could include two sub-roles: a mediator is sensitive to the owners needs and wishes and s/he informs the owner about the forest holding and its various long-term opportunities and an activator, in turn, supports the realisation of the suggested operations in the forest holding.

Development Phases of Forest Planning on Non-Industrial Private Lands in Finland: Perspective of Planners’ Work

This paper examines the historical phases of Finnish forest planning from the 1960s to the present day in support of the rational future development of forest planning for family-owned forest holdings. The ‘historical types’ of work—craft work, mass production, process enhancement, and mass customization have been recognized in the Finnish planning discourse to date. Indications of mass customization are typical in the present developmental discussion of forest planning. There are some signals in the current planning debate that are calling for the next activity principle, co-configuration. A forthcoming type of forestry extension activity, labelled adaptive planning, is described in this paper to explicate the demands imposed by a future planning system. The present analysis informs also other contexts outside of Finland, where public and private institutions that support family forest owners face post-industrial challenges.

Constructing forest plans interactively based on owner-driven evaluation of the holding- and stand-level alternatives

In this study, an interactive forest planning process corresponding to the practical demands was developed and further tested in a challenging forest planning situation in northeastern Finland. The process includes prior preparation of alternative stand-level treatments and a small amount of holding-level forest plans; an interactive planning session consisting of the primary choice of the forest owners profile; the owners selection of the best holding-level plan; and finally a local improvement of this plan. The method as a whole aims to bridge the gap between the prevailing planning culture that has developed for private forest planning over three decades in Finland and the planning approach suggested by multiobjective forest planning theory. The usability and characteristics of the process were evaluated through an exercise set given to both forestry students and forest professionals. Tests of the process indicated, among other things, that comparison particularly of stand-level alternatives and offering owners the possibility to make changes and truly affect the end-result of the planning process are seen as important characteristics of the process.