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Photo: Metla/Sanna Kittamaa |
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Approximately one fifth of Finlands wood recources and one fourth of the yearly growth comes from peatland forests. However, at the moment the commercial use of peatland forests is much smaller. Significant amounts of state funds have also been invested in management of peatland forests. So that the invested funds are not wasted, additional investments especially in the form of ditch work maintenance are necessary. In this study " Different operations models for management of peatland forests" we focus on cost-efficiency of the management. This study is part of the research and development programme "Cost-efficiency and quality in silvicultural operations".
In this study we focus on finding ways to improve the cost-efficiency of especially ditch work maintenance and by that way to increase the amount of management carried out in peatlands. The amount of working hours used and the quality of work both effect cost-efficiency. We started with describing the ways that different organisations carry out the planning and implementation of ditch work maintenance. The second phase was to monitor the working hours that different organisations use for ditch work maintenance and the quality of work in implented sites. The third phase
was to form three new operations models for management of peatland forests. These new models will be tested in practise with real ditch work maintenance projects. Finally the original and new models will be observed comprehensively using for example the activity-based costing method. An interview study will be carried out to find out the attitude of forest owners towards peatland forestry and ditch work maintenance.
During the monitoring of working hours used for planning and implementation of ditch work maintenance and the quality of work we studied different organisations including Forest Centers, accosiations of silviculture and forest service providers. The monitoring of working hours showed that there is some difference between organisations. However, the differences were mostly explained with the differences between the sites rather than differences between organisations. The bigger the ditch work maintenance site was, the more time was used for especially the field work during planning. The study on the quality of implented sites showed that all organisations could and should improve their work. Half of the sites lacked necessary silvicultural fellings and other silvicultural operations. There were also problems in defining the parts of the site that had too low nutrient levels for forestry. These areas should be left outside the site. There were also some lacs in defining the need for fertilization, the planning of water protection and the planning and implementing of the ditches. Due to the small amount of studied sites the results can not be generalised and the different organisations can't be put in order of superiority.
During the year 2010 we will carry out the comprehensive observation and the interview study. One aim of the study is to form indicators that can be used to measure the success of a single ditch work maintenance project.
Duration: 2007-2010
Keywords: cost-efficiency, ditch network maintenance, forest drainage, maintain ditching, peatland forestry
Research Programme: Cost-efficiency and quality in silvicultural operations
Project leader: Uusitalo, Jori
The Finnish Forest Research Institute, Parkano Office, Kaironiementie 15, FI-39700 PARKANO, FINLAND
Phone: +358 10 211 4010 Telefax: +358 10 211 4001
E-mail: jori.uusitalo @ metla.fi
Other researchers: Kannisto, Kari (2007-08), Kittamaa, Sanna, PA (2009), Rantala, Juho, SU (2007,2009)
