”Uinuvat metsävaramme käytön piiriin” : Valtionmetsien käytön suuri murros 1939-1970

• Main Author: Parpola, Antti
• Other Authors: Björn, Ismo, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economic and Political Studies, Helsingin yliopisto, valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta, politiikan ja talouden tutkimuksen laitos, Talous- ja sosiaalihistoria, Helsingfors universitet, statsvetenskapliga fakulteten, institutionen för politik och ekonomi, Heikkinen, Sakari, Laine, Jaana
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: Finnish
• Published: Helsingin yliopisto 2014
• Subjects: talous- ja sosiaalihistoria; Northern Finland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/136478

The use of Finland s national forests changed with World War II. During the 1940s and 1950s, the total cut tripled in relation to the area managed for timber production, and the area clear-cut increased six-fold. These new intensive logging practices became standard in the remote forests of eastern and northern Finland. This study explains how and why the agency governing the Finnish national forests, Metsähallitus, changed its operations during the years 1939 1970. These questions are answered in the vein of classical public administration theory by placing Metsähallitus in its social and governmental context and by analyzing the way in which Metsähallitus and its leaders interpreted expectations regarding national forest use. The starting point of the study is the social crisis created by the war, which in turn influenced expectations regarding the national forests and their use. The economic policy of the age emphasized the intensification of national resource use, and discourses on public administration favored effective and independent decision-making. Adhering to these paradigms, the foresters and officials of Metsähallitus changed the agency s operating model to facilitate intensified logging practices. The key figures in this change were Metsähallitus chief N.A. Osara and Forestry Professor Vilho Lihtonen. The new operating model for the national forests stressed maximizing the cut, but ignored the task of regenerating growth in the newly logged areas. As a result, both the volume and the growth of national forests plummeted during the 1950s. The subsequent regeneration of the northern and eastern national forests required a costly and protracted effort spanning the 1960s and 1970s. These changes in the agency s operating model constituted a narrowing of national forest use. Before World War II, the national forests had remained a largely untapped resource, which could serve multiple ends. The new operating model regarded the national forests primarily as a harvestable raw material for use by the pulp ...