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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2006

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Abstract

Agricultural policy has in the last 50 years taken much of the risk and the initiative away from Norwegian farm forest owners. Subsidies in agriculture have guaranteed an acceptable income and there has been neither need nor incentives for starting up new activities at the farms. This situation is now gradually changing. The income both from agriculture and forestry is decreasing and farm forest owners have either to move, to find job opportunities outside the farm or to start up new activity at the farm using the farm's resources. Entrepreneurship theory is used to study the question why some farm forest owners choose to start up some new activity based on the forest resources they have. We identify two main elements of entrepreneurship; the ability to recognise business opportunities and the ability to take calculated risk. In a survey to 500 forest owners in southern Norway (response rate 45%), we included questions about opportunity recognition and risk aversion. From the answers, we were able to split the forest owners in two groups, those with entrepreneurial attitudes and those without. Using logistic regression we found a significantly higher probability for start-up of new activities in the group with entrepreneurial attitudes. This result has very interesting policy implications. Many studies show that entrepreneurial attitudes to a large degree can be learnt. The first way of learning about entrepreneurship is through the education system and through courses and training of forest owners. The other way is 'learning by doing', which is most probably the most efficient way to learn about entrepreneurship. Public policy should stimulate more owners to 'do', by that they will 'learn' and that will again lead to more entrepreneurial activities at the holdings. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract

The article investigates innovation processes in the field of recreational services of forests. It takes a close look on innovation cases from five European countries with different institutional backgrounds in terms of forest ownership and access rights to forest land. The analysis first of all shows that forest related recreation services are developed in different institutional conditions and on public as well as private land. Financing is provided from public and private sources. Ideas may come from within and outside the forestry sector, however, impulses from outside seems to be of primary importance. In sum it can be said that both public and private spheres have important roles in providing natural, financial and human resources and usually a network of public and private actors are involved in innovation processes. Of particular importance are cross-sectoral interactions between forestry and tourism. A greater institutional support is needed for the development of forest related recreation services as the field is at the beginning of its development. Support should focus on providing ideas and financial resources for product development and on facilitating cross-sectoral interaction between forestry and tourism actors. A particular need is seen to develop models for durable interaction between land-owners and tourism operators on a regional scale.

Abstract

During the 1980s and the 1990s the tourism development in general increased rapidly. The term innovation has been used to describe this development. But how well can we adapt the traditional industrial understanding of innovation in the service sector? Especially it seems as we have to extend our understanding of innovation when comes to the development of nature based tourism. There is a need to discuss various definitions of innovation and look at a framework of understanding that distinguishes between various definitions of innovation in the service sector.

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Abstract

The paper analyses and discusses possible impacts on Norwegian agriculture of an EU membership based on the regionalized agricultural sector model CAPRI. Norwegian agriculture is characterized by a small-scale farming structure and high levels of support. Previous analyses have shown that Norwegian agriculture is expected to undergo dramatic changes because of EU membership in terms of farm income, production and structural change. Our study indicates that a substantial share of the agricultural production can be maintained at the national level. Milk and crop production may remain largely unaffected, while meat production decreases in the range of 10–20% compared to a reference run without membership. However, a reduction in total farm income by about 40% indicates that structural adjustments will follow EU accession. The results are discussed in view of the pattern of adjustments observed in Finland and Austria after EU accession in 1995. The need for the dairy industry to take advantage of the improved market access is stressed. Attention is also called to some strengths and limitations of the CAPRI model to analyse large-scale policy changes and to identify model improvements as an area of future research.

Abstract

This report explores how equivalence and mutual recognition have been applied by the European Union (EU) in order to facilitate trade. The EU is of particular interest in this area because it has been in the forefront internationally with regard to applying these tools, both in its internal market project and in its external trade relations. The report includes an empirical mapping of EU’s experience with applying equivalence and mutual recognition as trade facilitating tools. The aim here is to increase the understanding of how these tools can be relevant and important in a wider global context, in particular with regard to food trade. Furthermore, based on this experience some of the challenges that countries are faced with when applying these tools are highlighted thus allowing some assessments of the prospects of and difficulties in achieving trade facilitation through these means. Chapter 2 includes an account of some of the regulatory approaches that the EU has pursued in its attempts at realising an internal market, from the adoption of common rules, to mutual recognition and the «Better Regulation» programme included in the Lisbon strategy. Chapter 3 discusses EU’s rules for third-country relations. Furthermore, some of EU’s mutual recognition and equivalence agreements are explored. In addition to these, Chapter 3 includes an account of one-way judgements of equivalence included in EU’s rules for imports of organic food and fishery products. Chapter 4 presents EU’s work and positions on equivalence and mutual recognition in the WTO and the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Chapter 5 includes an assessment of the EU’s experience with mutual recognition and equivalence. Finally, in Chapter 6 some conclusions and final remarks are made. […]