Private forestry in Estonia

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• Private forestry in Estonia
• Jaanus Aun
• Private Forest Centre,
• member of the board

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General information

• Total land area 45 000 km2
• Total forest area 2,26 mln ha
• (50)
• Average growing stock 201 m3/ha
• Estonian forest categories
• Commercial forests (69,4)
• Protection forests (22,6)
• Protected forests (7,7)
• Dominant tree species in private
• forests
• Birch (33), Pine (28), Spruce (20)
• Annual felling volume
• 7 10 mil. scbm
• Possible sustainable cut up to 15 milj. scbm

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General information-private forestry

• Area of private forests
• ca 1 mil/ha (50)
• Number of owners ca 100 000
• (includes very small owners)
• Owners types
• physical and legal bodies
• (about 25
• of private forests belong to the
• companies)
• Average size of forest property
• ca 10 ha
• Very fragmented division of forest estates!
• Annual felling volume ca 6 mil. sbm
• Common forest owner
• Ordinary Estonian, living far from property and
  having no forestry education

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Private forests tree species (ha)
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Private forests what to do with the wood?

• The structure of Estonia's forest-based
  industries consists of all of the main branches
  of the forest industry, but the pulp and paper
  industry is relatively small
• Good domestic market for sawlogs - demand is
  higher than supply.
• Unstable market for pulpwood very little
  domestic market, most of the pulpwood is exported
  to Scandinavia. Domestic use is for the aspen and
  in very modest amounts for spruce and pine.
• Energywood - a star of tomorrow(?) but looser of
  today!

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Other owners

• State forests are managed by State Forest
  Management Centre (RMK), please visit
  http//rmk.ee/en
• Very little municipal forests
• Very little forests of churches and congregations

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Private forestry - roots

• Private land ownership was dominant before
  expropriation in 1940
• All land belonged to the state during the Soviet
  era, private forests mainly belonged to
  collective farms.
• Ownership reform started in 1991. Two ways for
  re-creation of private ownership
• restitution
• privatisation

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Private forestry situation in 2013

• Land reform almost completed
• Many passive owners
• Forest resources underutilised (especially
  species like alder, aspen)
• Volume of silvicultural works (pre-commercial
  thinnings, restoration of drainage systems) too
  modest

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Challenges for private forestry

• Activating private forest owners
  more silvicultural work (aims for 2020 30
  more pre-commercial thinnings
• tripling of area of thinnings)
• better growing conditions
• higher gross annual increment

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Measures to motivate forest owners

• Tax regulations
• Forestry legislation less bureaucracy
• A well-functioning support system

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Support system for private forestry -
organisations
Private Forest Centre
Central Co-operative United Forest Owners
Estonian Private Forest Union
Estonian Timbertrade Center
Forest Owners Associations
Forest Owners
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Private Forest Centre

• Foundation under the Ministry of Environment.
  Private legal body, but financed by the state.
• People 35 (15 local controllers)
• Aim promotion of private forestry
• Tasks
• Administration of subsidies to private forest
  owners (about 8 mil. eur a year)
• Development activities for private forestry
  (supporting of associations, advisory system,
  training courses, information materials,
  international projects etc.)

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Private Forest Centre
Supervisory Board (5 persons)
Auditing Committee
Board (2 persons)
Internal Control
Administ-ration unit
Development Unit
Unit of Subsidies
Control Unit
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Private Forest Centre - subsidies
Activity Budget for 2013 mil. eur
NATURA 5
Investments to forestry (thinning, pruning, machinery) 2,5
Forest Management Plans 1,0
Forest regeneration 0,6
Support to FOAs 0,5
Extensionist service (advisory system) 0,4
Forest draining 0,4
Protection of key habitats 0,13
Maintenance of cultural heritage 0,03

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Private Forest Centre partner in the projects

• Projects mainly in the field of woodenergy
• Bioenergy Promotion
• Woodenergy and Cleantech
• WETNet (producing of supertrainers in
  woodenergy issues)
• Exchange of experiences with forest sectors in
  other countries (mainly Finland, Sweden, Germany,
  Latvia)
• All projects, that are targeted to activate
  forest owners are very welcomed!

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Private Forest Centre co-ordinator of support
system

• Strenghtening the network of forest owners
  associations (FOA) by
• Providing direct financial support and assessing
  its impact
• Training the key persons of FOAs
• Advertising the services of FOAs to forest
  owners (campaigns in TV, newspapers)

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Forest Owners Associations

• Number of FOAs more than 20 active
• History
• first associations established in the middle on
  nineties. Attempts to organise wood sale and
  forest management. Result collapse
• New wave in the beginning of this century.
  Different approach not for profit groups, only
  soft services
• Change from 2008 FOAs as providers of forest
  management services

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Forest Owners Associations

• What could forest owner get from FOA
• Information
• Advice (courses and individual advice)
• Applying for subsidies from Private Forest
  Centre
• Support for silvicultural activities
• Representation in local policy questions (i.e.
  hunting, nature protection)
• Joint wood sale (not in all counties!)
• Trend from soft organisation to forest
  management organisation

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Forestland represented by FOAs (ha)
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Advisory/extensionist system individual advice

• Very strongly linked to the system of Forest
  Owners Associations!

ADVISOR provides advice
ASSOCIATION co-ordinates activities of
extensionists on the county level
PRIVATE FOREST CENTRE trains advisors, finances
provided advice
FOREST OWNER needs advice, gets advice
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Advisory/extensionist system - advisor

• Prerequisities to become an advisor
• Forestry education
• At least two year practise in forestry sector
• Good communication skills
• A special exam has to be performed in order to
  get a professional certificate of advisor
  (certificate is issued by The Rural Economy
  Research Centre)
• In total we have 80 advisors, but only ca 20 of
  them work as full-time advisors

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Advisory/extensionist system - financing

• From 2014
• Every member of FOA can get 15 hours advice for
  free every year
• Non-members have to pay 30 of costs of advice
  (from 2015 50)
• PFC pays 26 eur for hour (but not more than
  1526) to FOA who transfers money for advisor.
  All costs that exceed this level must be paid by
  the client.

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Advisory/extensionist system - training of
advisors

• Forming up of special training package for every
  year by PFC.
• Main topics
• Communication training
• Forestry legislation
• Taxation issues
• For advisors the traning is free of charge

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Advisory system group advice

• Target groups
• Staff of FOAs (incl. advisors)
• Forest owners
• Division of tasks
• FOA trains forest owners
• PFC trains staff of FOAs
• Forestry schools provide more comprehensive
  courses
• Cases when PFC trains forest owners
• Specific topics crucial all over the country (for
  example changes in the taxation legislation)
• Provision of written information/training material

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Advisory system group advice

• Methodology
• Public announcment by FOA
• 1-2 topics
• Lectures in- and outdoor (duration 3-4 hours)
• Most popular topics
• Taxes, subsidies, wood sale, silviculture
• Every year about 2 000 forest owners participate
  in the group advice events organised by FOAs

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Challenges

• Smarter forest owner can not be the only outcome
  of provided advice.
• Advice has to lead to activities in the forest!
• A well-functioning advisory system means better
  forests!

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Our expectations for the project

• To learn from the experiences of the partners
• How the advisory system has been made attractive
  for forest owners?
• How the good quality of advice is quaranteed?
• How is quaranteed, that advice will be
  implemented in the forest?
• and many other things to learn!

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