Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Social capital is a relatively new concept that has received considerable attention in various community branches. The concept relates to people’s contact and relationship with each other, where their social network is seen as a resource. An extensive network of contacts and trust between people often go hand in hand. People with high social capital have high trust in their fellow human beings and vice versa. The purpose of this study is to make a survey of private forest owners’ network of contacts and study the amount of general trust they feel towards it. This was executed by phone interviews with 100 forest owners who owned land in the central part of Sweden. In addition, I have through literature, official protocols and notes from meetings studied if and how the Forest Agency´s local forest sector councils contribute to the formation of social capital and matches private forest owners' network. The Swedish Parliament has decided on a total of 16 national environmental quality goals for Sweden to achieve within stated timeframes. This requires a great collaboration where social capital will be of significant importance. The forestry sector including the major forest companies, private landowners and governmental agencies have a large common responsibility to shoulder. The results show that forest owners generally feel great trust in other forest owners and neighbors but have less trust in other actors as major forest companies, the Swedish Forestry Agency and the County Administrative Board. Organizations, whose main purpose is to maintain and develop the natural, cultural and social values, were significantly under-represented in the individual forest owners´ network of contacts. Large forestry companies had most contact with the forest owners. Swedish Forest Agency´s local sector councils had a relatively high attendance of organizations that focus on these values, along with high attendance from major forest companies in the two study areas. However, the Swedish Forest Agency also had difficulties to create enough interest among the various actors for meetings to be held over time.