Knowledge use in the management of privately owned forests: a focus on decision support services for multi-objective forest use

This dissertation examines forest owners’ views of forest-related decision support services and knowledge use in them in private forests in Finland. Decision support services provide information through forest management planning and advice. The decision-making about and implementation of forest management take place in a multi-actor network that produces, distributes, and utilises knowledge in technical and social knowledge systems. The thesis is based on two surveys, extensive focus group data and field notes from workshops. It adopts a mixed methods approach. The results show that forest owners with timber production objectives considered the current decision support services most useful. Those who emphasised nature values or had multiple objectives were less satisfied. Forest management preferences are more versatile than what they appear based on overall ownership objectives. The majority of owners are interested in diversifying their forest management to increase other forest functions alongside timber production. Two knowledge systems, technical and social, influence knowledge use in forest management. Several points of discontinuity were identified in knowledge flows within and between forest-related actors and organisations. The codified, technical knowledge system dominates knowledge production and use. The importance of the social knowledge system has not been fully recognised. Independence from time and place, gratuitousness and ease-of-use make forest-related e-service more inviting. Lack of forest inventory data or its perceived low quality and discordance with forest owner objectives deter owners from using e-service. Forest owners expect decision support services to acknowledge their diverse and multiple forest use objectives. Information services on the management of nature values and integration of various objectives are needed. Knowledge flows are weakened by the domination of codified, forest resource-related knowledge, social structures and practices that inhibit the diffusion of knowledge within an organisation, and emphasis on the economic targets. Organisations on the forest sector are in key positions for changing the prevailing decision support practices, but so far the development of new practices has been slow.