Active forest ownership – Perception of Finnish women forest owners

“Active forest ownership” is often understood as a masculine and timber production-centric concept. The objective of this article is to study how women forest owners perceive the concept of “active forest ownership”. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted to study these questions. The interviews were analysed through the framework of feminist political ecology focusing specifically to different scales. The findings suggest that “active forest owner” is a more diverse concept for women forest owners than that described in Finnish forest policies or research. The definition includes feminine concepts like “taking care” of forests and understands that “being aware of forests” is a key part of being “active forest owner”. Furthermore, the intimate, family and local environment scales were crucial in impacting women's active forest ownership. These results indicate that forest policies would need to include a wider perspective of “active forest ownership” to address a larger proportion of forest owners and create more inclusive policies that could empower women. • Women forest owners understanding of “active forest ownership” was studied for the first time in Finland. • The concept of “active forest owner” is more diverse for women forest owners than in Finnish forest policies or research. • The attributes that impact women’s forest ownership are diverse including childhood environment and trusted advisor. • The National Forest Strategy fails to address gender differences and/or the masculine dominance. • These results indicate that forest policies would need to include a wider perspective of “active forest ownership”.