Skogsstatistisk årsbok 2003.pdf - Skogsstyrelsen

SUMMARYThe data is generally presented by county orother specified regions (figures 1.1 to 1.7). In thepresentation of international statistics we normallyuse the FAO’s classification scheme.2 Estate and ownership structureSwedish forest land covers 22.6 million hectares. Private forest owners own 51 percent and39 percent is company owned. Other public owners own 10 percent.Waste land or non-productive land (swamp, rock surface or sub-alpine woodlands) covers6.0 million hectares.In 2000 the number of forest owners and forest companies amounted to 354,323 and238,862 respectively. The percentage of female forest owners was 38 percent and absenteeholders 34 percent.In 1998, 274,222 of the assessed units had forests, out of which 92.4 percent were owned byindividuals; 1.9 percent by municipalities and county councils; 1.5 percent by the estate ofdeceased persons; 1.3 percent by limited companies; and 2.8 percent by the church, state andother public owners.The forest owners association had 89,353 member companies with a total forest area of 6.2million hectares.Information on real estate- and ownershipstructures are collected from different sources.Depending on the source, results concerning forestland area express minor differences.The National Forest Inventory is based on anannual field sampling of all land area (Chapter 1)and distinguishes between four ownershipcategories. Information on the distribution offorest and unproductive land (swamps, rock surfaceor sub-alpine woodlands) into ownershipcategories (table 2.1) is taken from this source.The General Assessment of Real Estates coversagricultural units every sixth year. Elevenownership categories are researched. The fourcategories mentioned above are approximatedthrough aggregation of this data and showinsignificant differences. The information on thestructure of holdings (tables 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7) isbased on data from the 1998 General Assessmentof Real Estates. Note that the number of assessedunits exceeds the number of enterprises by about25,000.The National Land Survey administers thisinformation and presents figures regarding realestate and forest ownership. Tables 2.2 and 2.4give information on absentee holders. An absenteeholder is defined as forest owner living outside themunicipality where the estate is situated. Absenteeownership is labelled for joint ownership estates ifmore than half the owners live outside themunicipality. In cases where ownership residencydata is missing the estates are automatically classedas owned by absentee holders.The Farm Register is based on data that iscollected annually and includes agriculturalholdings with one or more of the following characteristics:– more than two hectares of arable land,– large stocks of animals,– horticultural production.This source has provided information on forestryand agricultural labour requirements on farms(table 2.8).298