Skógræktarritið - 15.05.2001, Side 129

SKÓGRÆKT HANDAN SKÓGARMARKA/ NSSE
LOTTA JAAKKOLA, MIKKO IOKINEN &TAPANI TASANEN
The present and the future
of the timberline forests in
Norway, Sweden and Finland:
Opinions of researchers and
land use managers
SAMANTEKT
Rannsóknirnar sem hér er sagt frá fjalla um skoðanir sérfræðinga
annars vegar og stjórnenda auðlindanýtingar hins vegar á framtíðar-
horfum í sjálfbærri landnýtingu við skógarmörk í Norður-Noregi,
Svíþjóð og Finnlandi. Á þessu svæði eru hreindýrahjarðmennska,
skógarnytjar og ferðaþjónusta mikilvægustu atvinnugreinar nú. Sá
munur kom fram að sérfræðingar litu á landnýtingu á svæðinu út frá
fjölbreyttum möguleikum á meðan stjórnendur litu frekará efna-
hagslegar hliðar nýtingar. Sérfræðingar og stjórnendur voru sammála
um að framtíð ferðaþjónustu á svæðinu ætti að vera björt og að hefð-
bundin hreindýrahjarðmennska ætti framtíð fyrir sér ef tekið væri á
ofbeitarvandanum. Stjórnendur í skógræktargeiranum töldu að skóg-
arnytjar geti verið sjálfbærar og að hlýnandi veðurfar muni hjálpa þar
til. Aðrir stjórnendur og sérfræðingar töldu það hæpið þar sem áhrif
verðurfarsbreytinga gætu allt eins verið neikvæð fyrir vöxt skóga. Allir
voru sammála um verndargildi svæðisins, bæði út frá náttúruvernd og
verndun menningarþátta.
Background
Until recently, the socio-cultural
aspect of the use of natural
resources has remained underes-
timated. However, there is a
great need for anthropological as
well as ecological knowledge for
sustainable management of
nature to be further developed
(Clark 1992). The way people
define and conceptualise nature
and its use differs and confronta-
tion of different values and defin-
itions can easily lead to environ-
mental conflicts, which can have
negative consequences for all
stakeholders and create difficul-
ties in management procedures
(Jokinen 1998). The need to
understand social and cultural
conditions of management of
timberline areas forms the back-
ground for this research under-
taking.
This study focuses on timber-
line areas of Northern Scandina-
via and Finland. There are vari-
ous definitions for the term tim-
berline area, but in this study such
an area is defined as the transi-
tion zone between treeless tun-
dra and areas with forest cover
characterised by a continuous
closed canopy. in Sweden, what
are termed sub-montane forests,
fjallnara skogar, covers an area of
about 9 million ha, of which 1.6
million ha is in the category of
productive timberland
(Kankaanpaa & Vormisto 1998).
The areas defined as mountain
forests, vernskog in Norway is esti-
mated to amount to be approxi-
mately 23.5 million ha, which is
about 20-25 % of Norway’s total
land area (NOU 1989). In Finland
the protection forest zone, suo-
jametsavgöhyke, covers 3.15 million
ha (Veijola 1998a).
For centuries, timberline
forests have served as a source
for firewood, timber, snags and
wood for small-scale industrial
use such as, cooking of whale oil
and salt production. In the 18th
and 19th centuries, especially
along the coastal areas of North-
ern Norway and Russia, logging
and pasturing had a dramatic
effect on the timberline forests.
Inland, where population density
was low, domestic cutting of
wood had only local effect on the
forests (Veijola 1998b). At the
beginning of the 20th century,
large scale exploitation of tim-
berline forests lead to the pass-
ing of forest protection legisla-
tion, and since that time, use of
the timberline forests has varied
SKÓGRÆKTARRITIÐ 2001 I.tbl.
127