"Forests and forestry are relevant at many different policy levels"
On Friday, Anna Thorning had a licentiate seminar where she successfully defended her thesis "Sustainable Development in Forest Owner Associations – Stakeholder Roles".
Congratulations Anna! How does it feel?
"It feels good and almost unreal that it's finished. Now I'm going to go home and take it easy this weekend and just rest.
What is your thesis about?
- It is about sustainability in forest owner associations with a focus on forest owners' roles as stakeholders and increases the understanding of how forest owners view the forest owners' associations' sustainability work.
Why did you choose to write about that particular topic?
- I was accepted as an industrial licentiate with a focus on strategic sustainability in forest owner associations. Since then, I have developed the questions that have focused on forest owners and them as stakeholders. I wanted to increase the understanding of how forest owners view the sustainability work of forest owner associations by analyzing their different stakeholder roles in cooperative organizations.
Highlight some exciting results.
- That forest owners are generally interested in sustainability, but from different perspectives and what their goals are with their forest ownership. This is where their different stakeholder roles come into play and how they view their relationship with the forest owners' association. These different roles that forest owners have as stakeholders can be important for forest owner associations to take into account when engaging and building relationships with forest owners.
In what ways is the topic of the thesis topical?
- Forests and forestry are relevant at many different policy levels: EU, nationally and also regionally. Sweden is also an exporter of forest raw materials where sustainability issues play an increasingly important role and smaller private forest owners are important players in the forest sector whose perspective is important to highlight.
What are your plans for the future?
- Now I'm going to build on what I've done as a licentiate and continue towards a doctorate, not on exactly the same track, but similar, with a focus on sustainable business models in the forest sector.
Main supervisor was Yvonne von Friedrichs, Professor of Business Administration.
The opponent was Teppo Hujala, professor at the University of Eastern Finland.
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