34 



Collective Forests. 



By collective forests, such forests are intended which, apart 

 from the forests of the rural communities, are owned and governed 

 collectively by private individuals as an economic whole, the pro- 

 ceeds being divided among the shareholders (only those owning the 

 land thus) according to principles drawn up amongst themselves. 

 The Forest Law of 1886 assumes that such forests can be formed by 

 a v o 1 u n tary agreement among the landowners combining 

 their forests under a single administration. It is not known that any of 

 the collective forests should have been formed in this way. On the 

 other hand, some have been brought about in the great repar- 

 celling of lands. The largest of these collective forests will 

 in the future be in North Finland in certain parishes in which the 

 great reparcelling is still unconcluded. More numerous are the 

 collective forests that have resulted from the colonization activities 

 of the State and the rural communities. These are generally, however, 

 fairly small. Altogether there are now 67 of the latter, their total 

 area being 20 350 hectares. These forests are controlled by the Colo- 

 nization Board. Working plans are drawn up for them by the Board 

 in question, which also supervises their application. Certain of the 

 collective forests in this group have been divided among the share- 

 holders, at the request of the latter, and attached to their individual 

 parcels of land. -- Two collective forests, with a total area of 5 362 

 hectares, were formed on the former gift-lands of the Administrative 

 District of Viipuri in such a manner, that the State made over a 

 couple of State parks, formed from the gift-lands at the time of 

 their redemption, to the former tenants of the lease-farms, following 

 in this an old promise given by the Senate. Applications for the ced- 

 ing of other State parks formed in like manner for collective forests 

 have been made to several Diets. The matter has not as yet, however, 

 been finally decided. The two forests in question are worked on 

 working plans approved by the Governor of the district. 



In order to thrive, the exploitation of a collective forest demands 

 a strong sense of solidarity and mutual trust among the partners in 

 the same. Envy and quarrels are, sad to say very common occur- 

 rences among the partners in our collective forests, for which reason 

 the idea of collective forests has not led to such good results in prac- 

 tice as the promoters of the idea awaited. 



Forests of the Joint Stock Companies. 



A considerable group among the landed proprietors of the country 

 is formed by the Joint Stock Companies. Including quite small pro- 

 perties owned by various associations and societies, the area of land 



