Norwegian Forest Owners Association ( no, Norges Skogeierforbund) is an association representing 43,000 owners of

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The main functions of the organisation is to assist the members, who are mostly

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

s, to manage their forest. This includes forestry plans, part of the cutting of timer and negotiating agreements with lumber mills and

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, ...

s. The association is one of the 13 agricultural cooperatives in Norway and based in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

with 366 local groups and eight district organisations, organised as

BAs Bas may refer to: People * Bas (name), a given name and a surname * Bas (rapper) (born 1987) Chemistry * Boron arsenide (BAs), a chemical compound * Barium sulfide (BAs), a chemical compound Other uses * ''bas'' (French for "low"), as in bas- ...

. In 2005 83% of all domestic timber was organised through the association. The eight regional organisations are Havass Skog, Glommen Skog, Mjøsen Skog, Viken Skog, AT Skog, Vestskog, Sogn og Fjordane Skogeigarlag and ALLSKOG. Both the regional and central associations hold major ownerships of Norske Skog and

Moelven Industrier Moelven Industrier ASA is a Scandinavian industrial group owned by Glommen Mjøsen Skog SA (78,84 %), Viken Skog SA (20,80 %) and Allskog SA (0,08 %). The remaining 0.28 % is owned by private shareholders. The Moelven Group supplies wood-based bu ...

. The associations are members of the

Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise ( no, Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon, NHO) is an employers' organisation in Norway with more than 30,000 members. It was founded in 1989 as a merger of the Federation of Norwegian Industries, the Norwegi ...

(NHO).

History

The first forest owner association was founded along

Glomma The Glomma, or Glåma, is Norway's longest and most voluminous river. With a total length of , it has a drainage basin that covers fully 13% of Norway's surface area, all in the southern part of the country. Geography At its fullest length, the ...

in 1903, soon to be followed by others. Because of the nature of

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

, the associations were organised by

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

instead of by

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. The national association was founded in 1913 as a union between the regional associations. The first mayor task was to buy the

Borregaard Borregaard is a Norwegian company, established in 1889 in the southeastern town of Sarpsborg in Østfold county. Its main products were traditionally pulp and paper. The company later started producing chemicals based on timber as a raw materi ...

corporation based around Glomma from the British Kellner-Partington company, that was finalised in 1917. In 1962 the association founded

Nordenfjelske Treforedling Norske Skog Skogn AS is a pulp mill and paper mill situated in Levanger, Norway, which produces newsprint. Situated on the Fiborgtangen peninsula in Skogn, the mill has three paper machines with a total annual capacity of 600,000 tonnes. Pulp ...

that opened the Norske Skog Skogn plant in 1966. Norske Skogindustrier was founded in 1972 as a massive merger between various companies throughout the country. The association still owns about 20% of the corporation, that has become the world's largest producer of

newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has an ...

Ivar Aavatsmark Ivar Aavatsmark (11 December 1864 – 1 July 1947) was a Norwegian officer and politician for the Liberal Party. He finished his military career in 1928, as Major General, head of the 2nd Division and Commander of Akershus Fortress. As a politi ...

served as Director of the association for 40 years, between 1942 and 1982.

References

{{Authority control Agricultural cooperatives in Norway Renewable resource companies established in 1913 Companies based in Oslo Employers' organisations in Norway Forestry in Norway Norske Skog 1913 establishments in Norway