The Swedishexperience: Woodlot associations have critical mass, history on their side

摘要

I'm standing among the big pines in southern Sweden talking to Magnus Berg, a representative for Sodra, the region's woodlot owner association, and my mind is reeling, imagining the vast opportunities and benefits that could be realized by woodlot owners back home if we had organizations like this working on our behalf.Non-industrial private landowners in the Maritime provinces hardly need to be reminded that they are statistical outliers in Canada's forest industry. They account for an unusually large proportion of forest acreage and timber supply in this region, butin relation to the country as a whole they are vanishingly small, representing barely one percent of total woodlands. Nationally, there is not a strong culture of woodlot ownership, nor is there much awareness of this sector at the federal level, and these factors may partly explain Maritime woodlot owners' limited success in improving their lot collectively. In Sweden, by contrast, woodlot owners are part of the mainstream, and they have a longstanding tradition of mustering economic clout through cooperative efforts.