Skógræktarritið - 15.05.2001, Page 128

from other sources, in terms of
wages per hour. Still, many con-
sider forest income to be impor-
tant, as it represents one of the
few possibilities for earning extra
income on the farm. In such a
situation where there is no alter-
native price for labour, the hours
worked count little, the total
amount counts more.
A sub-group worth mentioning
is the young forest owner. He is
also typically married and has
young children. His spouse nor-
mally works full time off farm
(public administration, health
care, teaching etc.). The farmer
himself also tends to have most
of his income from off-farm work,
and having forestry income down
at the bottom of the scale. Given
the demands of modern society,
they both take part in bringing
up the children, and this in many
ways results in having little free
time to do forestry work.
This can be illustrated by the
situation in one municipality in
the years after a hurricane hit
Western Norway in 1992. This
used to be one of the most for-
est-active municipalities in the
county, one of the few with long
and continuous traditions of
forestry. Because of the
increased supply of windthrown
timber, this municipality, which
only sustained minimal dam-
aged, decided to postpone log-
ging for two years. But when the
two years had passed, and log-
ging could commence, there
were problems in reaching the
old logging level for several rea-
sons, but the more interesting
was that during the two years, a
local female entrepreneur had
established a successful firm
employing local women. So,
when the husband was to go to
work in the forest again, he found
he no longer had the free time at
his disposal since he had to con-
tribute more on the domestic
level while his spouse was out
earning money. Thus an initiative
positive to the local community
proved difficult for local forestry.
Still, even though there are
problems for the young forest
owners, they do regard forestry
as „the most pleasant part of
theirwork". In fact, all owners
state that the time spent in the
forest is more alike to a holiday
than to.tedious work. As one put
it: ,„.in the forest I have time.to
sit down, brew coffee over an
open fire, admire the scenery and
escape from the daily grind".
Being a farmer in a developed
country today is a stressful occu-
pation. Thus we cannot overlook
the importance of these thera-
peutic functions of forestry.
It may be correct to say th'at
the forest owner household
today is trapped in the „time-
squeeze". Formerly being more
on the outside of society at large
with more of a say as to what to
do and when to do it, the situa-
tion today is much more Iike that
of urban dwellers. As time-slots
are getting shorter, it will be
increasingly difficult to use them
in forestry activities. This in
many ways is a type of work
needing longer stretches of time
to prepare equipment, travel to
forest, do the work and finish up
afterwards.
Another important group is the
professional forest worker. The
use of professional workers
varies quite a lot across coun-
tries and regions, an important
factor being the profitability of
hiring outsiders as opposed to
doingthe work yourself. But
there still are some trends to be
seen. First, it seems there is, to
an increasing degree, little or no
connection between worker and
locality. A professional crew will
have to work a large area to make
a living. Secondly, this implies
that the benefits of using peofes-
sionals to the local community
are very small. Thirdly the gener-
ally low profitability in logging
ensures that you have to work
long, hard hours.
It is possible to discern an
emerging pattern of forest work-
ers similar to that of the crews
working on oil-platforms at sea:
you get in, work two or three
weeks, then get out and recuper-
ate for a period.
References
Amdam, |. (1998): Confidence Building
in Local Planning and Development.
Some experiences from Norway.
Volda University College, 1998
Amdam, 1. (1999): Forestry Resources
and Local Sustainable Development.
in Byron, E. and |. Hutson: "Local
Enterprise on the North Atlantic
Margin.” P. 295-316. Ashgate.
Aldershot. 1999
Amdam |„ J. Barstad, K. Froseth og
G. M. Olsen (19961: krsahertil
manglande skogavvirking i More og
Romsdal (Sogn og F/ordane). More-
forsking Volda/Hagskulen i Volda
Arbeidsrapport nr. 29 (og 36).
Amdam, J„ Barstad, J. and G. M.
Olsen (2000): Kviforskalvi
avverke skog? Om Srsaker til
manglande skogavverking pá
Vestlandet. Forskingsrapport nr.
40 Moreforsking Volda/Hogskul-
en i Volda ISBN 82-7692-151-5
Amdam, R (1997) Sustainable Local
Development in Practice: The case of
Sykkylven. in Byron, R„ |. Walch
and P. Breathnach (eds.l,
"Sustainable Development on
the North Atlantic Margin”,
Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. 173-193
Barstad, J. (1998): Foresl owners' atti-
ludes and the Norwegian Local fxgenda
21-process. How welt do these interact.
In “Public perception and atti-
tudes of forest owners towards
forest and forestry in Europe.
From enlightenment to applica-
tion.” Ed. K. F. Wiersum. Agri-
cultural University Wageningen,
Hinkeloord report No 24
126
SKÓGRÆKTARRITIÐ 2001 l.tbl.