Natural Resources Planning in Metsähallitus

General case description

Brief overview

Natural resources planning in Metsähallitus defines the strategic level decisions concerning seven large sub-areas: Kainuu, Eastern Lappland, Western Lappland, Upper Lapland, Western Finland, Eastern Finland and Ostrobothnia [1]. The planning started in 1.4.1995 from Kainuu region, and 2002 a new round was started. The last plan was carried out in Eastern Finland. These plans cover the whole area of state forests governed by Metsähallitus, i.e. about 9 million hectares.

The goal is to reconcile the possibilities offered by natural resources with the needs of different parties to form an effective whole. Different forms of use of state lands are, among others, nature conservation, forestry, recreation, eco-tourism, real estate development and the sale of soil resources. Particularly, economic, ecological and social sustainability is aimed for. Each plan is made for a ten-year period, and it is checked after 5 years.

Metsähallitus is carrying out the planning process as a participatory planning process. The process is organized in the form of several working groups. They give their recommendation as to the plans, but Metsähallitus is the decision maker in the process. In addition, the Finnish government guide the decisions by Metsähallitus. Before the participatory planning mode was started, Metsähallitus had several conflicts with reindeer herders, environmentalists and in some cases also local inhabitants. Currently, there are no on-going conflicts between Metsähallitus and any stakeholder group.

Organization

The initiative for the participatory planning came from Metsähallitus.

In the first process, the process lasted from spring 1995 to the end of November 1996. In the beginning around 400 potential stakeholder groups were notified of the process. Around 10 meetings were arranged, and 60 stakeholder groups were involved. 600 members of general public gave 1600 statements. The work was organized to one regional working group and four local working groups.

In the last process of Eastern Finland, the work was carried out in one working group of 21 members. The members of that group represented the main stakeholder groups of Metsähallitus (governmental and non-governmental environmental organizations, education, industry, recreation, personnel of Metsähallitus, municipalities). The group had 6 meetings from April 1007 until February 2008. In addition, seven meetings for general public were arranged, and altogether 133 persons were involved.

• Who started the process?
• What influence did the participation have in the decision process? (for instance compared to Arnstein levels of participation)

Problem structuring

• How was the problem defined?
• Who defined the problem? Was participation used in problem definition phase?
• What tools or methods were used in problem structuring, if any?

Intelligence

Stakeholders

• who were the stakeholders?
• how were they selected?

Objectives

• what were the criteria?
• how were they selected?

Preferences

• how were the preferences of the decision makers and stakeholders elicited?

Information

• what information was collected?
• what tools were used for data collection?

Design

Alternatives

• What kind of alternatives were considered?
• How were they defined?
• Who defined them?
• What tools and methods (if any) were used to define them?

Choice

Usage of DSS

• What kind of DSS was used (if any)?
• How was the DSS used in the process?

Usage of models, methods and tools

• What kind of decision support tools (models, methods) were used, if any?
• How were the decision support tools used? (for instance, through internet, with the help of a facilitator, with hands-on experiments)
• Was the use of decision support tools interactive?

Monitoring

• Was the success of the project monitored?
• How was the success of the project monitored? (both process and product)
• Who monitored the success?
• Were the decisions/plans implemented?
• Was the implementation monitored?
• Were the goals set for participation achieved?

References

Hiltunen, V., Kurttila, M., Leskinen, P., Pasanen, K. & Pykäläinen, J. 2009. Mesta: An internet-based decision-support application for participatory strategic-level natural resources planning. Forest Policy and Economics 11: 1-9.

Pykäläinen, J., Kangas, J. and Loikkanen, T. 1999. Interactive decision analysis in participatory strategic forest planning: Experiences from State owned boreal forests. Journal of Forest Economics 5: 341-364.