The invention relates to a method for controlling the crane (20) of a forest machine (10), in which method the crane (20) of the forest machine (10) and at least one function other than that for moving the crane (20) are controlled by control functions actuated by controllers (70, 71, 80, 81) in the forest machine (10). In the method according to the invention, maintaining the control function controlling primarily another function than moving the crane (20) for a time longer than a given threshold time will activate an operation in which the crane head (24) will move from a first location (A1； B1) to a second location (A2； B2), or there between, along a predetermined travel path (S1； S2), if said control function has a duration shorter than the time taken by the crane head (24) for moving from the first location (A1； B1) to the second location (A2； B2) but longer than said threshold time. The invention also relates to a system for implementing the method according to the invention in a forest machine.
