Norwegian Forest Owners Association is an association representing 43,000 owners of forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

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

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

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

Paper mill

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...

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

Agricultural cooperatives in Norway

The Agricultural cooperatives in Norway consists of 13 companies, each organised as independent farmer owned cooperatives. They cover four different areas for the farmers: refining and sale of produce, financial services, breeding and insemination, and retail of agricultural equipment. All the...

 and based in Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 with 366 local groups and eight district organisations, organised as BAs

Selskap med begrenset ansvar

Selskap med begrenset ansvar shortened to BA is a Norwegian term for a corporation comparable to a limited liability company. Meaning literally Company with limited liability, it is a type of corporate structure used in Norway for limited companies based on a co-operative structure.-Legal...

. 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

AT Skog

AT Skog BA is a regional forestry organisation for Agder counties and Telemark, and the district organisation of Norges Skogeierforbund. AT Skog has around 8500 members, organised in 54 local forestry groups. The organisation is based in Skien....

, Vestskog, Sogn og Fjordane Skogeigarlag and ALLSKOG

ALLSKOG

Allskog BA is the regional branch of the Norwegian Forest Owners Association in Central and Northern Norway, including the counties Møre og Romsdal, Sør-Trøndelag, Nord-Trøndelag, Nordland, Troms. Its 9,000 members are organized through 100 chapters...

. Both the regional and central associations hold major ownerships of Norske Skog

Norske Skog

Norske Skogindustrier ASA or Norske Skog, which translates as Norwegian Forest Industries, is a Norwegian pulp and paper company based in Oslo, Norway and established in 1962...

 and Moelven Industrier

Moelven Industrier

Moelven Industrier is a Moelv, Norway based company that delivers wood products to the construction industry throughout Scandinavia with production facilities in Norway and Sweden...

. The associations are members of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise

Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise

The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise is an employers' organisation in Norway with more than 16,000 members.It was founded in 1989 as a merger of the Federation of Norwegian Industries, the Norwegian Employers' Confederation and the Federation of Norwegian Craftsmen..The president is Kristin...

 (NHO).

History

The first forest owner association was founded along Glomma

Glomma

The Glomma or Glåma is the longest and largest river in Norway. The long river has a drainage basin that covers a full 13% of Norway's area, all in the southern part of Norway.-Geography:...

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

Logging

Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...

, the associations were organised by river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 instead of by county

Counties of Norway

Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 430 municipalities...

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

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 material...

 corporation based around Glomma from the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Kellner-Partington company, that was finalised in 1917. In 1962 the association founded Nordenfjelske Treforedling that opened the Norske Skog Skogn

Norske Skog Skogn

Norske Skog Skogn is a paper mill located in Levanger in Norway. The mill was the first mill in the Norske Skog Corporation and opened in 1962. It has three paper machines and produces 600,000 tonnes of newsprint annually...

 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 worlds largest producer of newsprint

Newsprint

Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper most commonly used to print newspapers, and other publications and advertising material. It usually has an off-white cast and distinctive feel. It is designed for use in printing presses that employ a long web of paper rather than individual sheets of...

. Ivar Aavatsmark

Ivar Aavatsmark

Ivar Aavatsmark was a Norwegian corporate executive and forester from Høylandet. He was director of the Norwegian Forest Owners Association for forty years, between 1942 and 1982. He was one of the architects behind the Norske Skog corporation that was started by the association. He died in...

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