Abstract

In Finland, a significant share of silvicultural work is carried out by private forest owners, yet these self-directed activities have not been included in official statistics. Official statistics data are collected from professionals and organizations that offer and perform forest management services, so forest owners’ activities in their own or family-owned forests remain largely undocumented. Since current data sources do not capture the silvicultural work carried out by private individuals, this affects the reliability of forest management data and undermines the evaluation of policy instruments such as silvicultural subsidies.

This study introduces a method for estimating self-directed silvicultural activities using data from Finland’s National Forest Inventory (NFI13) and National Silvicultural and Forest Improvement Work Statistics. The method involves calculating correction coefficients by comparing NFI-derived activity levels with the reported figures from the statistics. These coefficients are adjusted regionally based on forest ownership categories, allowing for a more accurate estimation of unrecorded work.

Pre-commercial thinning is used as a case study, since it is assumed to include more self-directed work than most other silvicultural activities. The case study reveals significant regional variation in coefficients. The analysis also explores the impact of forest ownership area distributions on silvicultural activity estimates.

Preliminary findings indicate that incorporating self-directed silvicultural work into national statistics could substantially enhance the reliability of forest data. This would provide a more comprehensive foundation for evaluating policy outcomes and resource allocation. The study raises questions about the sufficiency of current data, proposing that these estimates of self-directed silvicultural work could be useful and should be introduced as an experimental statistical component.