sou · GQB340d5 · 2003-01-01 00:00:00 — In addition, nature conserva- tion has been successful in because there is a single organisa- tion taken primary management responsibility. Consequently, the budgetary requirements are clearly defined along with the manage- ment of these areas. Table 4 shows the state-owned land managed by State and National Parks. land included in Nature Reserves and Landscape Parks is controlled by the State . land in- cluded in Landscape Parks is part of managed land so it is not sepa- rately included in the total area controlled by the two organisations to avoid double counting (the reason for the italics in Table 4). State-owned area included in IUCN categories II and V (managed by National Parks) is 182,000 hectares. Part of this area, which is equal to 46,038 hectares, completely prohibits harvesting. Average harvested volume for the remaining area (136,000 hectares) is 1.33 solid m3 under bark per hectare. Average harvested volume on managed areas is 3.30 solid m3 under bark per hectare. There- fore, harvesting reduction is on the areas managed by National Parks. In addition, there is no commercial harvesting on nature re- serves, while harvesting is permitted on landscape parks, depending on the management plans for each district. land under control by the state administration (i.e. by State and National Parks) Area (000 ha) Water and soil protection (damaged by industry) National defence and other Protected Area (IUCN categories) II (National Parks) Education, tourism and natural and cultural features Other (please specify) for scientific, natural or cultural Water and soil protection natural, historical and (damaged by industry) National defence and other In , the nature protection system includes the following legal forms: National parks are established on the basis of regulations from . The Minister of Environment supervises and coordinates the activities of national parks with the assistance of the National parks are financed by the state budget. There are 22 national parks (refer to Table 4 for area). Nature reserves are established on the basis of regulations of Prov- ince Governors or the Minister of Environment if creation of a na- ture reserve is necessary due to international obligations. There are 1,269 nature reserves including 634 nature reserves, all located in the boundaries managed by the State (refer to Table 4 for area). Landscape parks are established on the basis of regulations of Prov- ince Governors. The Minister of Environment coordinates activities of landscape parks. There are 120 landscape parks. Most of the included in landscape parks are managed by the State , not (refer to Table 4 for area). 2.4.2Administration costs and revenues State in 1999 had a total income of 7,and total costs of 7,(Table 5). In the case of State For- ests, direct allocation from the state budget is dedicated to afforesta- tion of state-owned marginal farmland and for reconstruction of stands destroyed by pollution when it is impossible to detect the pol- lution source. There are no government subsidies for regular activity. National Parks, as state budgetary units, have different financial man- agement systems than that of State . Regarding the revenue trends in State , sales will con- tinue to be the main revenue source. Access to public for rec- reational purposes is and will stay free for the public as well as berry and mushroom collection. And, in many National Parks the revenue from tourism is likely to increase. Revenue generated from service de- partments includes services (e.g. skidding, soil preparation, etc.), service of machinery, transport services and real estate rentals. Bilaga 2 SOU 2002:40 Financial data (1999) for State and National Parks in State (million SEK)* (million SEK) Activity of the service Other (financial operations, sale of goods and various Capital, tax and other * Note: Exchange rate applied was 1 PLN = (average for 1999) **NFEPWN = for Environmental Protection and 2.4.3Partnerships with special interest groups All State units are responsible for the implementation of gen- eral guidelines to increase public participation in decisions regarding management. Trained officers deal with public relations issues at central and regional levels. Table 6 shows the level of in- volvement for each type of partnership or strategic alliance. SOU 2002:40 Bilaga 2 Type of strategic alliance Percent involvement on area The following non-commercial products are being utilised: tourism and recreation, horseback riding and mushroom and berry collection. Access to young (lower than four meters) is prohibited. Horse- back riding is possible along defined trails and roads. Motor vehicles are allowed on public roads. In addition to the non-commercial products, hunting and fishing are quite common, especially through hunting associations and hunting tourism agencies. Revenues pro- vided by some of these activities are presented in Table 5. Local people are employed by State , contractors and National Parks. Locals also get considerable income selling mush- rooms and collected free of charge in the managed by State . This is especially important in some rural areas where the unemployment rate exceeds (a result largely of bankruptcy of large state farms). In addition, tourism activities positively impact local small businesses (pensions, restaurants, shops, handicraft). And, importantly, tax is paid to local authorities (communes) by both State and National Parks. Employment in forestry and wood processing (average in 1999) amounted to 378,000 people; with 63,900 in forestry; 151,400 in wood production; 42,700 in pulp and paper production and 120,000 in furniture production. Forestry represents of total employment. 2.4.6Transfer of land ownership The issue of acquiring private lands is vital for some national parks. The primary procedure is to purchase the land. According to the pur- chase programme, National Parks are to purchase 5,036 hectares of private land. This process is slow for lack of capital; for example, Na- tional Parks bought only 168 hectares in 1999. In some cases subsi- dies are applied as a component of special projects. For example, owners of the meadows included in were subsidised to continue harvesting the hay (though it was unprofita- ble) because it was necessary to preserve traditional habitats as well as landscape and cultural values. State often purchases private land or sometimes exchanges land with private owners to straighten out the borders between pri- vate and state land or between farm land and land. How- ever, the yearly transfer of ownership in terms of area is insignificant. Table 7 summarises how is practising conflict management. Following the table, are brief descriptions on how these mechanisms have been employed. Public participation mechanisms used in ranking (0-3) ranking (0-3) Individual/group submissions Public meetings – Public meetings are organized e.g. at the final stage of developing the management plan. All interested parties (lo- cal and regional governments, NGOs, scientists, ) have a pos- sibility to express their opinions on draft management plans. The main target of such meetings is to recognize the position of stake- holders, to discuss and to find common position if possible. Such public meetings are considered as a good solution to avoid serious conflicts during management plan implementation phase. Advisory groups – Examples of advisory groups: – an advisory group to Minister of Environment – an advisory group to General of State – a group of environmental NGOs which is gathered to discuss e.g. basic professional instructions applied in State (such us instruction on silviculture and utiliza- tion, instruction on management planning) Councils of each National Park. 3.Social surveys – Social surveys are made sometimes before making a decision on extension or of new National Park. Ac- cording to Act on Nature Conservation, , extension or reduction of a National Park area is possible under the condition that local governments express their positive opinion on that measure. 4.Litigation – It is mostly applied when there are conflicts concerning ownership. 5.Environmental mediation – It is applied mostly in cases when pro- tected area includes also private lands where land management prac- tices have to be adjusted to achieve the goals fixed in protection plan. 6.Lobbying – It is applied during parliamentary discussion on legal acts regarding forestry and nature conservation. In State , mechanisms of public involvement in man- agement are tested in 10 (area: 445000 hectares). Generally there are two most important existing and potential fields of conflicts: 1)Conflicts between local societies, local governments and NGOs, and the Ministry on Environment concerning functioning or ex- tension of existing National Parks or creation a new ones. Famous example: conflict between Bialowieøa/Hajnowka governments and environmental NGOS/concerning extension of 2)Conflicts between State and environmental NGO:s con- cerning forestry practices. It used to be a very hot issue in the mid- dle of 1990s. At present these conflicts arise locally rather seldom, thanks to education/information measures undertaken by State and also to FSC certification process. cover of the total land area in totalling to 20.1 million hectares. Approximately of the growing stock of this area is Scots pine, spruce, birch and other hardwoods, mainly grey alder and aspen. Public ownership accounts for of the area, which is ad- ministered through the Finnish and . Private citi- zens own of the land and produce of the domestic . industry companies own , and municipalities, par- ishes and foundations own the remaining of land. Until 1994 state fell under the authority of (). NBF was established in 1859 and since 1863, NBF was subordinated to the Directory of Land Survey and Forestry. Since its beginning, NBF has acted as an independent central , pri- marily answering to the . Refer to Figure 4 for the organisation diagram for NBF. Duties of NBF included the management of the state . For this purpose the were divided into so-called chief districts and management districts. In 1921, the legislation con- cerning the state was modernised. The legislation defined NBFs duties to be the management, control and promotion of for- estry in . In 1994, the and () was created, and the role and position of the state administration was profoundly re- vised. As a result, FPS is no longer a central in the state ad- ministration but an independent business unit. It reports to the Min- istry of Agriculture and Forestry in matters concerning productive and their utilisation and to the in matters concerning protected areas. The organisational change in 1994 did not result in decentralisa- tion. In fact, the result was the opposite. A number of rural offices ac- commodating the management district staff have since been closed. In addition, the District Offices were also closed. It can be said that all the decision-making power is concentrated in the head office. The shift towards a more centralised organisation was primarily for eco- nomic reasons. As a state enterprise, FPS felt it necessary to stream- line the operations and minimise costs. At present, FPS is a state enterprise, answering to the riculture and Forestry. In matters related to nature protection, FPS is responsible for the majority of the protected areas in and works under the (Figure 5). The ministries are responsible for the ownership, along with policies and political is- sues, while FPS is responsible for the strategy, management and oper- ational issues. Figure 6 shows the business units for FPS. The following briefly de- scribes these business units: Responsible for almost 4.8 million ha, or of the area of FPS Harvesting and wood sale, management of industrial of the state include Finnish and foreign companies using wood as raw material One of the objectives is multiple use of Responsible for recreation areas throughout the business units and the (responsible for nature conservation) Generation and sale of tourism services Product range includes nature tours, accommodation, fishing, hunting and hiking services Laatumaa (Prime Land) and leasing of lands Responsibility for acquisition and assignment of property within FPS. This includes land for conservation purposes of soil, aggregates and related products Production and sale of seed and plants Production of other regeneration products and services in and abroad Marketing of the expertise of the and Park Service abroad Planning and implementation of forestry and environmental projects worldwide research is the responsibility of the . Thus, FPS does not have any direct involvement in scientific re- search. In the current organisation of the FPS, the Forestry business unit is divided into six geographic forestry regions. The regions are: West , East , , Kainuu (North East ), West and East . The same division is applied in the Na- ture Protection function. As far as staff resources, FPS employs 1,000 professionals, which includes and other graduate personnel as well as personnel with lower de-grees, such as technicians. There are roughly 800 supporting staff. Manual labour and operations have been contracted out, which results in 450-500 contractors. In FPS, the rela- tionship between administrative and operational staff is about 70 to . Since the latest organisation revision, an improvement in work efficiency has occurred, i.e. the organisation is managed more like a private company instead of a government . Nature protection falls under the responsibility of the Natural Herit- age Services (NHS) of FPS. NHS is responsible for almost 4 million hectares, or of the area of FPS. NHS is directed and supervised by . NHS has the following duties: 1) care and maintenance of statutory protection areas and other areas re- served for conservation, 2) protection and care of endangered species, 3) management of wilderness areas, recreational areas and other areas of specific interest, 4) recreational hiking services for the public and provision of services for , 5) public authority re- sponsibility concerning issues related to nature conservation and 6) patrolling of game and hunting. 3.3Evaluation of the organisational effectiveness 3.3.1 Management of the As manager for the state , FPS has financial, social and envi- ronmental objectives. FPS has been successful in achieving these ob- jectives. It has made considerable profit, 400 million , of which is given annually to the state. Furthermore, profits have in- creased since the reorganisation, as a result of the organisation operat- ing more like a profit-oriented business. The social and environmental objectives have also been achieved. Having a separate organisation () within FPS to handle nature conservation has served as a firewall between the commercial activities in the Forestry business unit and the conserva- tion activities. In addition, this separation increases the transparency of the costs for managing these protected areas. FPS felt that the reor- ganisation was essential to improve the financial management of the protected areas and the overall organisation. Another benefit of hav- ing a single organisation responsible for nature conservation and commercial forestry is the increased ability to utilise resources that are common to activities in both organisations. Other benefits in- clude improved ability to benchmark practices to improve opera- tional efficiency and the exchange of information, such as handling environmental issues, which is an important topic in all the business areas of FPS. Table 8 shows the total land owned by FPS, totalling 12 million ha of land and watercourses. FPS manages almost 8.8 million ha of land area, of which, is considered forestry land and is land for either protected, wilderness or other objectives. Included in the for- estry land is 3.3 million ha of commercial and 1.4 million ha of non-productive land. Both fall under the responsibility of the Forestry business unit. As far as the second category (protected, wilderness and other), the primary objective is not commercial forestry. The management of these protected areas fall under the responsibility of either the Wild North business unit or NHS. For the statutory protected areas (1.2 million ha), the main objective is, of course, protection. These areas include national parks, strict nature reserves, protected mires and pro- Harvesting is not allowed in these areas. Wil- derness areas are primarily in northern Lapland, and though harvest- ing is allowed, in practice it is uncommon because of the opposition from community and environmental groups. The main objective for the category other areas is recreation, with hunting being very im- portant in these areas. In addition to the area included in Table 8, there is a small portion of state land still outside of FPSs control. This includes the military (80,000 ha) and the national parks under the control of the . There is a high likelihood that in the near future these areas will be concentrated under FPS. State area managed by FPS (000 ha) with low to no Other areas (primarily Protected, wilderness and Total area managed by FPS F, G, A, etc. F, G, A, etc. F, G, A, etc. Managed by the business unit A,C B These are areas currently not considered as protected, but will eventually C,D,H A = Scientific research B = Wilderness protection C = Preservation of species and genetic diversity D = Maintenance of environmental services E = Protection of specific natural and cultural features F = Tourism and recreation H = Sustainable use of resources from natural ecosystems I = Maintenance of cultural and traditional attributes There are two planning systems applied on FPS land: 1) natural re- source planning and 2) landscape ecological planning. Natural re- source planning falls into the responsibility of the Forestry division. Natural resource planning is a land use plan covering all the opera- tions of the FPS on a relatively vast area. The planning period is 10 years. The aim of the natural resource planning combines the objec- tives of the state and other stakeholders as well as citizens concerning the state . The core of the planning process is co- operation with stakeholders and citizen participation. Natural resource planning formulates the basic solution concern- ing the utilisation of natural resources of the given area. The plan de- cides the protection and tourism use of the and defines the management and annual harvesting volume of the given area. Targets and goals within these plans are re-evaluated jointly with the stakeholders every five years. Annual operational plans are elaborated on the basis of the natural resource plans. Flexibility is stressed with operational planning for many reasons, such as harvesting operations needing to adapt the market demands. Landscape ecological planning is multi-target planning, which aims to secure the biodiversity and different types of uti- lisation in commercial . These plans are developed by a team of experts, ranging from FPSs forestry, nature protection and recrea- tion business units to local stakeholders. 3.3.2Administration costs and revenues Table 9 presents the revenues and costs for both the commercial and the protected areas managed by FPS. Since the transformation into a state enterprise, FPS has been able to sharply increase profit levels, with most of the turnover generated by wood sales. SOU 2002:40 Bilaga 2 Financial data (1999) for FPS (million SEK)* (million SEK) Seed & plant production *Note: Exchange rate applied was 1 = A revolving fund system is applied to the FPS, which means the or- ganisation does not automatically return all its profit to the govern- ment cashbox. It is to a large extent financing its functions from the income it generates and can, as a result, plan its operations more thoroughly. Annually, FPS returns approximately of the profit to the state (). Nature conservation is financed directly from the state budget. Fi- nancing is allocated through the , the Min- istry of Agriculture and Forestry and the . The breakdown of government allocation to protected areas is from the , from the , from the and coming from other sources. Others consists mainly of European Union funding. There is no commercial harvesting on protected areas, so revenues are generated from tourism, hunting and fishing. FPS has arranged the production and marketing of its tourism, hunt- ing, fishing and other recreation activities within the business unit, Wild North. Currently Wild North actively offers accommodation in located in national parks, fishing and hunting licenses and hiking tours. In the future, Wild North expects the demand for fish- ing and hunting licenses as well as accommodation services to in- crease. Revenues generated from tourism, hunting and fishing are shown in Table 9, and the number of facilities owned by Wild North is in Table 10. Recreation facilities offered by FPSs Wild North Wilderness , open to the public Wilderness , reservation needed Natural parks / hiking areas Wilderness areas with different facilities In , state contribute only a minor flow of economic benefits to local communities. One reason for this is that over of the harvesting operations are mechanised so the need for labour is minimal. However, the wood-processing industry does offer signifi- cant employment opportunities. Table 11 gives the employ- ment in , which accounts for of the total employment. employment in (full-time equivalent) Silvicultural works, maintenance1, Although the direct employment is limited in numbers, it has a cru- cial importance in some rural areas where other job opportunities are very limited. When demand in forestry increases, employment in- creases by a factor of 1.1, while an increase in the sawmilling industry results in an increase of 2.6. 3.3.5Transfer of land ownership The issue of securing land for conservation purposes involves two or- ganisations: Environmental In- stitute () under the . NHS, of course, represents state nature conservation while represents private con- servation efforts. There are two options for the private landowner when the government feels it to be necessary to manage or annex protected areas: subsidies or transfer of land. FPSs business unit Laa- tumaa is responsible for the acquisition or transfer of land for nature conservation purposes. This ensures that an independent service is provided to all parties involved. There have been some recent developments in dealing with the transfer of land for conservation purposes. In the 1970s and 1980s, authorities decided that certain private lands were to be pro- tected by establishing natural parks or other types of protection areas. As part of the process, the government was to purchase land for na- ture conservation. has always been a slow payer; it could take 10 to 15 years before a landowner received his/her money. To solve this problem a strategic government decision was made in 1997 to allow some 50,000-60,000 ha. to be purchased. The lands to be converted to protection areas were to be purchased by the state dur- ing the next 10 years. The amount of funds allocated for the land purchase is about billion. The proportion to be financed by the FPS is about billion. Table 12 summarises the public participation mechanisms used to re- solve conflict in . The most common method for resolving conflict is public meetings. Bilaga 2 SOU 2002:40 Public participation mechanisms used in FPS ranking (0-3) ranking (0-3) Individual/group submissions currently has more than 1.3 million hectares of . En- vironmental conditions are quite favourable for tree growth, as there is plenty of rainfall and warmth during the growing season. Despite these relatively good conditions, still has significantly less area than many other countries.