Climate Action 2010-2011

SPECIAL FEATURE | Viken Skog
Photo by Vegard Breie.
A forest cooperative
– a model of
sustainable forestry
in Norway
Viken Skog BA is a cooperative forest association
in south-eastern Norway, owned by some 12,000
forest owners. They represent more than 80 per cent
of all forest owners in the catchment area. Viken Skog
buys approximately two million m 3 timber per year from
its members, and sells the timber to sawmills and the
pulp and paper industry. Viken Skog can also organise
logging operations on behalf of its members and provides
services relating to planting, forest management and
environmental protection on members’ properties.
The big challenge of small forest incomes
In total, the cooperative members of Viken Skog control
almost one million hectares of productive forest, which
means the average forest property is 80 hectares. Every year,
approximately 5,000 of the 12,000 members supply timber
to Viken Skog. The majority of forest owners have small
properties, and the challenge is to ensure that these owners
manage their forests well, despite deriving a modest income
from them. Surveys show that for around 80 per cent of
forest owners in Viken Skog, annual earnings from the forest
represent less than 15 per cent of total household income.
Norway’s forests as carbon sinks
Norway has relatively little forest compared to
neighbouring countries such as Finland. Yet over the last
100 years, all forests in Norway, including the area of
Viken Skog, have grown significantly. Today, Norway’s
annual increment of growing stock (25 million m 3 ) is
more than double the total area that is logged, which is
just 10-11 million m 3 . This means that the forests absorb
as much as 25-30 million tonnes of CO 2
per year. In
addition, the use of wood as fuel and building materials
reduces net emissions of CO 2
by approximately 10
million tonnes per year. With a lot of growing forest in
its most productive stages, the forest will also absorb and
store vast quantities of CO 2
in the years to come.
It is important for future generations that the forest is
regenerated and well-managed to achieve optimal forest
production. In Norway, it takes a newly-planted tree 50-
120 years to reach felling maturity.
Forestry is an economic activity with a long-term
outlook, and climate actions in the forest must be viewed
in the context of the next 80-100 years.
Planting after harvesting: a duty and
a tradition
In Norway, the Forestry Act instructs all forest owners
to regenerate the forest after logging. The forest owner
must arrange for either planting or natural regeneration
before the logging can begin. In addition to this, the
forest owner must set aside a certain amount of money
from the sale of timber to cover actions for regeneration
and other long-term investments in the forest. These
rules have resulted in the accumulation of a vast forest
resource in Norway. The tradition within forest owning
families to hand over the forest property to the next
generation in at least the same shape as it was when one
took charge of it, has been a success for the forest sector.
It is a challenge for Viken Skog and other organisations
to motivate forest owners to continue to be ambitious in
regenerating the forest.
Wood – a climate-friendly building
material
An important part of the climate balance is the use of
wood in construction. By substituting less climate-friendly
building materials with wood, the climate balance will
be positively affected. Wood produced by photosynthesis
in the forest will be absorbing CO 2
as long as it does not
burn or rot. Buildings made of wood can store CO 2
for
hundreds of years. Within the Viken Skog area, there are
stave churches which are as much as 900 years old.
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