Challenges of municipal greening and multifunctional forest management: The case of Finland

The structure of the Finnish forest sector is in transition due to institutional, social and market-driven factors. While non-industrial private forest owners have been researched extensively, the pressures faced by public forest owners have been left relatively unexplored. Our study is a part of a broader research programme attempting to form new understanding concerning the municipal forest owners in Finland. Our research questions were: (1) how are municipal forests divided into different usage categories, (2) how is their current usage expected to change in the future, (3) what various preferences exist among municipal decision-makers concerning the use of municipal forests, (4) what various aims might the different decision-making preferences represent (both conflicting and complementing), (5) do municipal decision-makers representing different types of municipal backgrounds elicit differences in the way they orientate themselves towards forest usage? Survey data were collected during 2011–2012 using a web-based questionnaire sent to all continental municipalities in Finland. Responses were received from 139 municipalities (a response rate of 43%). Based on the survey, there is need for multifunctional municipal forest management. However, service markets seem to mostly support commercial forest usage. Besides timber production, a four-dimensional structure describing decision-making in municipal forest management was linked with (a) nonwood economic values of forests, (b) health effects of forests, (c) image of the municipality and (d) carbon neutrality goals.