Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Odd Roger Enoksens

”Women and forestry”

Lillehammer, 13.08.99

Ladies and gentlemen.

It is a pleasure for me to introduce the Governments policy on regional development and to pay special attention to the situation of women in forestry. Today we are in a county in which forestry has been of vital importance for development of economic growth and welfare for centuries. The issues of women and forestry excemplifies major challenges in Norwegian regional development. Here we are confronted both with questions of preservation and change. Women have got an important role in developing the excisting structure in forestry. In doing so women more and more are expected to act as a change agent – fostering new economic activities and new patterns of social and cultural activities.

I will start my presentation with referring to the main national strategies dealing with regional development and forestry Then I will talk about the special challenges facing the counties of Oppland and Hedmark. I will end my presentation with discussing some concrete issues concerning the role of women in the future development of forestry

National policy in regional development

The Norwegian Government is highly devoted to preserving the main features of the settlement patterns in all parts of the country. In last years there has been a marked mobility from the periphery to the central areas and towns. Our basic thinking in regional policy is to develop competitive companies based on the advantages in each region. This is achieved in part by creating new jobs and in part by restructuring and strengthening existing firms. The companies in less developed regions differs from the companies in central regions in several ways. Trades and industries in peripheral regions are heavily dependent on raw materials. The huge majority of enterprises are small and have therefore few resources to use in research and development of new products. Resources for effective marketing and export oriented sales-activities are usualy low.

Three main strategies have been worked out to combat this unwanted migration from the peripherial districts. (1) Young people are a special target group. The challenge is to give young people a strong connection to their regional background which could motivate them to move home after an educational period. (2) Women are a special target group since many peripherial districts experience an unbalanced population structure concerning gender. (3) The third strategy deal with the organization of policies. The Government pays attention to the strengthening of regional issues in sectoral policies like industrial policy, transport policy, educatiomal policy etc.

The last bill to the Storting also highlighted the need to develop regional developmental programmes. The aim is to promote consistency and cooperation between sectoral policies. The main responsibility is put on the counties and their regional collaboraters like regional state agencies, municipalities and employers and employees organizations. The regional actors are asked to relate the regional goals and strategies to the actual resources in the different sectoral budgets. National strategies and priorities are of course to be followed. The regional developmental programmes now includes the resources in industrial-, fisheries- agricultural-, labour market and regional policies.

In regional development the Government now focus on an increased autonomy for counties and regional actors. Several arguments are used in this debate. It is extremely important that the spending of resources are used in a cost-effective way and that the resources are geared towards the most important problems in the regions. It is also important that administrative costs are reduced. The Government has launched a comprehesive program which aims at ”simplifying Norway”. This program will have consequences both for industrial activities and for different users of public services.

National policy concerning forestry

The Government presented a bill to the Storting last year in which a future-oriented policy got broad support. A forest-based valueadding should be developed by a more integrated policy of forestry and forest industry. There is a huge potential for valueadding and employment by strengthening the refinement process. New possibilities in rural districts could be opened by increasing the products based on wood. In this bill the Government also put emphasis on forestry and sustainable development. Products based on wood have several advantages compared with products based on other materials. There is a need to increase the consciousness in society about the positive impact from forestry on patterns of products and consumption.

The bill presents a revised perspective on privat ownership and public responsibility. Traditionally public authorities have taken a great engagement in forestry. The role of privat ownership is underlined in the bill, and public authorities should use resources in a way which stimulates private owners to be in line with the new sustainable and valueadded policy.

Traditionally the Norwegian forest policy has been geared towards the first links in the value chain. However the valueadding and the economic prosperity in forestry are highly dependent on the other links in the value chain.

The importance of skill development is underlined. There is a need to find new methods of advicing, dialogue and recurrent education. Such development should engage both the forest owners, the manual forest operators and the entrepreneurs.

The bill highlights local and regional planning and a broad participation by all interest groups in the forest sector. However, the goals and strategies for an integrated approach between forestry and the forest industry should be seen in the sector-embracing county plan.

The counties of Oppland and Hedmark

The counties of Oppland and Hedmark have been highly dependent on agriculture and forestry for years. New industries and futureoriented firms based on high competence are seldom developed. The counties are scoring low on parameters like education level. This situation has fostered a debate about a new broad-based policy for industrial development and change in which both industrial and welfare policies are included. Both municipalities, regional state agencies, employers and employees organizations have taken part in this debate which are lead by the counties. Consensus has been reached and the two counties are determined to invent a longterm project for development and change. The main content of the project is centered around cooperation of different policies. Regional autonomy is a crucial theme. Regional goals and strategies should have a stronger influence. Resources from different departments should be used according to these regional strategies. As Minister for Local Government and Regional Development I appreciate this initiative very much, and we have decided to spend extra resources on the project. Hopefully we will see signs of a ”region of to-morrow” (Morgenlandet) as a result of this comprehensive project.

As I said the counties have traditionally been dependent on agriculture and forestry. To make some concrete statistics from the county of Hedmark:

- Hedmark has got 1/5 of all the forest resources in the country.

· About half of the land use areal is covered by forest.

· The amount of forests in Hedmark has doubled in the last 100 years.

· The forests in Hedmark grow more compared to what is cut.

· Forestry and forest industry are responsible for 1/10 of employment and 1/5 of the value-adding

· There are more than 10 000 properties in the county, ¾ are owned by private owners.

· Approximately 20 pst of all transfers of agricultural holdnings are to women. This figure is increasing, and more so in the forest sector. Women who are forest owners accordingsly are a special target group.

· Recruitment to forestry in the county is low. 3 classes in secondary schools have to be abolished this year due to few applicants.

Let me add some information from the county of Oppland which focus on the challenges facing the forest sector in this county:

· Investments in forest roads are here decreasing. It might mean that forest cutting in the future will be low.

· Large forest industries like ”Norwegian Forest” (Norske Skog) find it more cost effective to buy raw materials from low cost countries in Eastern Europe. This is pressing down the prices, and forest owners will have low motivation in increasing the cutting.

· A special challenge is to strengthen forest refinement in the county, making use of traditions and skills built up during tens of years.

· Measures should be geared towards product development, establishing network between different links in the value chain, risk capital and the development of competence.

· The county of Oppland has about 12 000 forest owners. However a minority has got forestry as their main economic activity. This means that motivation may be low. A special challenge is therefore how to reach the new categories of owners, including the women.

· Recruiting to forest schools and to the different kinds of manual and theoretic work in forestry are often low. Taking care of the employees and establishing good work conditions and a thriving environment is also a challenge.

· Attention has more and more been put on the environmental questions; renewable resources like forest products could be used in constructions and could also be used for energy purpose instead of oilbased products and energy.

Women and forestry – issues for discussions.

What I have said is that women in the rural districts is of crucial importance. There is a tremendous important job to do here. The obvious thing is that they are mothers, and have the key to a balanced population development which means we will have enough skills and employment to make use of the natural resources in the forest sector. And more than that: Forestry might be a special interesting sector to engage in for women since they are owners and since they are more affiliated to future values like environmental protection and sustainable development.

In a concluding section I will raise some questions which are in the front when we are to implement a regional and forest policy for the years ahead.

Women and planning

A new policy is to be implemented in local and regional territories. Planning for action is a priority. Mobilization and dialogue with women representing different experiences are important. Here challenges, prerequisites and solutions are discussed. Such planning processes are not just administrative necessities. They are also arenas for new insights and learning. Regional and local administrators should ask themselves: Have we been successful in mobilizing women? Did they draw upon experiences from other women? What could be done concerning spreading the vision for to-morrow to other women who did not participate in the planning process?

A crucial theme in planning is how to promote recruitment and develop a thriving environmental work situation in which skill formation promotes decisions which are cost effective and sustainable. The age structure today means that a high percentage will be on pensions in the coming years. A Swedish research report has shown that young people have very low ratings concerning occupations in the forest sector. Accordingly there is a need to work out a more effective recruitment policy.

Women and sustainable development

Women have been frontrunners in understanding the environmental challenges and promoting a sustainable production and consumption pattern. The 70ies saw study and action groups engaged in protesting against unhealthy products and an extensive use of resources which were not sustainable. A new policy for forestry shows a long list of environmental challenges. It seems that women are more inclined to grasp the environmental challenges in their local community and their own forests. In implementing the new policy it is time to ask questions like: How do we combine a cost-effective production system with a harmonious sustainable development? What are the practical solutions and the need for public intervention in such a perspective? What kind of new firms and products could be developed as a response to the new priorities?

Women and the management of their own forests

As a result of heritance women have become owners of forests to an increasing degree. This raises a great challenge concerning the development of skills. There may be a need to look over the structure of advicing and guidance, as new policies are to be implemented. Women may also be more inclined to learn from network structures. Experiences show that paying attention to mutual support and expressing their own values are important while they are taking cost effective decisions concerning their own forests. In a future oriented discussion we may raise the follwing question: To what degree could women contribute to a modernizing of skill development in the forestry and to what degree are women a special target group for training and advice?

Women and entrepreneurships

In regional development policy much emphasis has been put on stimulating women to act as entrepreneurs; to sort out idaes, take initiatives and establish their own firms which could increase the family income or establish the company as an independent economic unit. Such a policy has helped women to find an economic basis in the rural districts, which is of vital importance for stabilizing the settlement patterns. Introducing a new policy of forestry underlines such a concept and draws attention to an even broader entrepreneurial concept. We see a need to introduce a concept of society entrepreneurs which forcus on leadership and networking among actors and organizations. One obvious challenge is to establish new collaborating structures; bringing forest owners in contact with forest industries and research and marketing organizations. Not every woman have the capacities to act in such a change-oriented manner. What we should ask is therefore: How could a concept of entrepreneurship be strengthened in the forest sector? What role is there for a change-oriented entrepreneurial behaviour involving both men and women?

I will end my presentation about regional policy and the challenges facing women in the forestry by underlining the follwing points: There is a huge need for a future-oriented policy which preserves the forests and lays the foundations for an effective and sustainable use of these natural resources in the next century. To fulfill such a goal means that women and other actors as well, will face the need for new insights and act as agents promoting change.

Thank you for your attention.

This page was last updated August 13 1999 by the editors