Power dynamics and (intergenerational) values : What influences the forest ownership of young translocal forest owners in Finland?

Abstract

Forests and trees have diverse meanings in Finland that are claimed for many different purposes. Urbanisation has and will continue to increase the number of translocal forest owners, leading to the diversification of forest ownership, values, utilisation, and human-forest relationships. It is important for translocal forest owners, the generation of future forest owners, to gauge the values and meaningfulness of translocal forest ownership and to understand the possible future changes in forest management and ownership structures. In-depth interviews were gathered from ten forest owners aged 18–30 living in the greater Helsinki area, six of whom later participated in a World Café workshop, to understand their values and ability to conduct values-based decision making. Value conflicts were identified in both the interviews and the group discussion, and going against the prevailing norms of commercial forest ownership was viewed as difficult and requiring courage. Deviation from these norms was made difficult not only by disciplinary and neoliberal governance structures but also by intergenerational ties and social pressure from older family members. These factors reduced the autonomous decision making of young forest owners, leading them to internalise the Finnish forestry sector's prevailing norms. Thus, young forest owners could end up shaping their forests according to the values of those who wielded more power rather than their own. Nevertheless, there was little intention to transfer the legal ownership outside of the owners' family, because the forests, and their intergenerational and social ties often provided sentimental value, leading to the intention to retain ownership control.