Study title

Forest Professionals' Experiences and Views on Voluntary Forest Conservation and Forest Management Planning 2014

Dataset ID Number

FSD3158

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3158

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Pynnönen, Sari (Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK))
• Kurttila, Mikko (Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla))
• Hujala, Teppo (Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla))
• Primmer, Eeva (Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE))
• Mäki-Hakola, Marko (Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK))
• Järvinen, Vesa (University of Helsinki. Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry)

Abstract

The study charted forest professionals' experiences of forest conservation in their work, opinions on new means of ensuring biodiversity of forests, principles of forest management, and the development of client interaction in securing biodiversity. The survey is part of the METSO collaborative research project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (2013-2016).

The respondents were first asked about the type of tasks that are included in their daily work (e.g. consultation of forest owners, creating forest management plans), and about their experiences of new work methods, such as Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) techniques, and new forest management methods made possible by recent changes to the Forest Act. Experiences of voluntary forest conservation were examined, as well as whether the respondents had participated in trainings regarding the new Forest Act or the METSO biodiversity programme. The respondents were also asked to evaluate their own expertise and areas of development both personally and in the industry more generally.

Views on the motives and goals of forest management planning as well as experiences of the professional-client relationship and different types of client interaction were surveyed with a set of attitudinal statements. The study also surveyed attitudes towards voluntary forest conservation as well as forest inventories, their usefulness and reliability.

The respondents were asked about changes in their work tasks within the previous three years. In addition, their wishes for development in their work practices were queried with an open-ended question. The final questions covered work motivation, perceptions of own expertise, new work methods and tools, and the reliability of devices, software and databases used by the respondent's organisation. The respondents' views on ideal work practices and tools were also examined, especially relating to Terrestrial Laser Scanning.

Background variables included gender, year of birth, position of employment, time worked in the current position, education history, and time worked in the industry.

Keywords

conservation; forest management; forest protection; forest resources; forestry; forests; land resources

Topic Classification

• Agriculture and forestry (Fields of Science Classification)
• Agriculture and rural industry (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Environment and conservation (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (A) openly available for all users without registration (CC BY 4.0).

Data Collector

• Finnish Environment Institute
• Natural Resources Institute Finland
• Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners

Time Period Covered

2015

Collection Dates

2014-11 – 2015-01

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Finnish-speaking forestry advisors and forest planning specialists at forest management associations (MHY), and forest planning specialists at OTSO Metsäpalvelut nationwide.

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Total universe/Complete enumeration

A link to the survey was sent via e-mail to 706 employees of forest management associations (MHY) and 100 employees of OTSO metsäpalvelut. The survey was sent to all forestry advisors, forest planning specialists and other forest professionals at Finnish-language forest management associations, and in the case of smaller forest management associations with the manager as the only employee, the survey was sent to the manager or the association's common e-mail address. E-mail addresses of the forest management associations' employees were obtained from forest owners' associations around Finland.

At OTSO Metsäpalvelut, a link to the survey was sent to all forest professionals who were listed as forest planning specialists in their contact information. E-mail addresses of the employees of OTSO Metsäpalvelut were obtained from a contact information search on the organisation's website. After the initial collection time, two reminder e-mails with a link to the survey were sent to those who had not yet responded.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

31.3

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

2.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The dataset contains two questionnaires. The MHY questionnaire's (quF3158_1_fin) questions were used in naming the variables. For reasons of privacy, the open-ended variables q4_11_1, bv5_1, bv6_1 and bv7_7_1 were removed from the data.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Pynnönen, Sari (Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK)) & Kurttila, Mikko (Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla)) & Hujala, Teppo (Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla)) & Primmer, Eeva (Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)) & Mäki-Hakola, Marko (Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK)) & Järvinen, Vesa (University of Helsinki): Forest Professionals' Experiences and Views on Voluntary Forest Conservation and Forest Management Planning 2014 [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2019-01-18). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3158

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Hujala, Teppo & Pynnönen, Sari & Kurttila, Mikko & Arponen, Anni & Kasurinen, Sanna & Tähtinen, Sanna & Primmer, Eeva & Paloniemi, Riikka (2016) Metsien monimuotoisuuden suojelu ja metsien käsittelyjä monipuolistavien neuvontapalveluiden kehittäminen: Maanomistajien ja metsäammattilaisten näkemyksiä. Luonnonvara- ja biotalouden tutkimuksia 69/2016

Järvinen, Vesa (2015) Keilaten vai kävellen? Metsäammattilaisten näkemyksiä laserkeilausperusteisen metsävaratiedon luotettavuudesta ja toimivuudesta metsäsuunnittelussa. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto. Maatalous-metsätieteellinen pro gradu -tutkielma.