'The Role of Digitalization in Private Landowners’ Forestry Sector Interaction', a seminar by Dr Susanne Åberg (Uppsala University)

The Role of Digitalization in Private Landowners’ Forestry Sector Interaction

By Dr Susanne Åberg (Uppsala University)

Abstract:

In the transition to a more sustainable society, access to sustainably produced biomass is an
essential prerequisite for a competitive and growing bio-economy. In Sweden, the role of
private forest owners is absolutely central to a functioning forestry sector, as individual forest
owners own about half of the productive forest land, and this will not change, as companies are
forbidden by law to buy privately owned forests.

In addition to harvesting and selling timber to timber-buying organisations to generate a return
on the forest, markets are also emerging for alternative sources of income, such as carbon and
biodiversity credits. This makes the forest owners’ already complex decision-making about
forest management even more complicated, and the difficulties in overseeing and evaluating
different options are obvious. According to Feng and Audy (2020), the rapid digitalization and
industrial transformation taking place in society today are also evident in the forest industry.
New technology has enabled alternative ways of interaction beyond traditional methods, and
new digital solutions linked to contracting services for forest owners are constantly being
launched.

It is not uncommon for forest owners to find themselves at a disadvantage in terms of
knowledge compared to large forest companies and forest owners' associations, which have
traditionally had a significant information advantage in the forestry sector. Forest companies,
on the other hand, often struggle to satisfy the diverse interests and goals of forest owners,
particularly given the opportunities new technology offers in the field. The European
Commission’s decision to make data considered particularly valuable to society open and freely
available also lays the foundation for individuals to obtain information that was previously
inaccessible.

In this paper, we investigate how individual forest owners demand and integrate various digital
information bases, how knowledge transfer occurs in practice, and how the balance of power
between private forest owners and contractors in the forestry sector is influenced by this
development. We conduct a case study in which we use private forest owners’ interactions with
Södra’s digital platform “Min skogsgård” as the unit of analysis. Södra, organised as a member
organisation, is one of Sweden's largest forest companies. The paper is based on data collected
in three different iterations. The first round of data collection involved people responsible for
developing Södra’s forestry website and app, “Min skogsgård,” and included interviews with
six people about the platform's development. In the second phase, four focus groups were
carried out with private forest owners. In the third phase, five advisors (the equivalent of buyers
in other companies) were interviewed and asked questions about how private forest owners use
the digital platform and how their use affects their relationship with the advisor and the forest
company.

About the speaker:

Susanne Åberg is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University.