Chapter 1 The emerging shortage of labour in forestry in a remote coniferous region: A brake on the massive use of biofuels

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter aims at analysing the spatial pattern of the impending shortage of rural labour in North Karelia, Finland. The focus of the analysis is on forestry, which has a demand for labour that is spread evenly over the entire region.

Methodology – Future population development up to 2020 is predicted by roll-up calculation model, which reveals the future potential of local labour in forestry by area type.

Findings – Economic development shapes the socio-economic landscape. The economic boom since the mid-1990s towards advanced production and services has led to the strengthening of a concentrated regional structure in North Karelia. Forest resources are increasingly being utilized through labour living in the municipal centres, as the supply of competent labour in the distant and core rural areas has been on the decline. Therefore, in the future municipality centres will have to supply the labour force for forestry and its associated services within a reasonable commuting distance.

Practical implications – In order to enable the efficient use of forest resources in the future new policy options such as more efficient forest management through the enlarging of the forest holdings to be harvested, the use of foreign labour, contract work and the better utilization of redundant rural housing and infrastructure should be considered as an addition to the traditional engineering approaches aimed at increasing mechanization. At any rate, if nothing is done, the aim of making more intensive use of forest resources and converting the forest biomass to energy may not be achieved in a region such as this.

Citation

Lehtonen, O. and Tykkyläinen, M. (2009), "Chapter 1 The emerging shortage of labour in forestry in a remote coniferous region: A brake on the massive use of biofuels", Andersson, K., Lehtola, M., Eklund, E. and Salmi, P. (Ed.) Beyond the Rural-Urban Divide: Cross-Continental Perspectives on the Differentiated Countryside and its Regulation (Research in Rural Sociology and Development, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 25-55. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1057-1922(2009)0000014004