Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The forest offers many different values. Besides the economic values from the wood there are also other values in nature like ancient monuments and biodiversity.

To support people to preserve these values there are different economic contributions to apply for. The purpose of this study is to analyze the reasons why people who have the right to apply for these contributions do not apply. The Swedish forest agency is the outsourcer to this investigation. Furthermore this investigation is trying to find out if there is a certain group of people who is not applying for these contributions, and who needs more information about them. This was made by sending 490 surveys to forest owners in the county of Västmanland.

To the question if the respondents knew about the contributions 67 percent answered that they did not know about the contributions and 27 percent answered that they did. The remaining six percent answered both alternatives, or that they did not know.

The knowledge about the contributions was a bit higher among elder people and men, compared to younger people and women. But the differences were not big. The conclusion is that the main reason for the forest owners not to apply for the contributions is that they do not know that they have the possibility.