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Abstract
The forest owner cooperatives in Sweden were established almost a century ago
with the aim to improve the private forest owners’ bargaining situation and improve
silviculture (the study, cultivation, and management of forest trees). The
characteristics of today’s private forest owners and forest industry are changing,
something which should encourage the forest owner cooperatives to consider
adaptations of their organizations. The aims of this paper are, first, to describe
characteristics of forest owner cooperative members and second, to probe the
applicability of farm cooperative research in this venture. The statements that are
tested are based on characteristics established in farm cooperative research and refer
to (i) a negative relation between forest cooperative member’s age and property size,
(ii) a positive relation between member’s age and proportion of trade accomplished
through the cooperative, (iii) a positive relation between member’s age and
membership in cooperative boards and committees, and, finally, (iv) a positive
relation between property size and resignation from the forest cooperative. The
hypotheses were tested on data from Norra Skogsägarna, a forest cooperative in
northern Sweden. None of the propositions found support in the data. The results
thus indicate that forest cooperative members may differ from farm cooperative
members in several respects. The premise is put forward that this may be due to
differences between forest and farm owners’ situations with respect to market
characteristics and investment intensity, something that can affect membership
expectations.