FORESTS IN FINLAND
1. Forest facts
2. Forest ownership in Finland
3. Family forestry in Finland
4. Forest owner organisations
5. Forest certification
6. Forest protection and biodiversity
7. Forest sector in Finland’s national economy
8. Forest policy
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1. Forest facts
Finland is the most densely forested country in the European Union. Forests cover 23 million hectares which represents about 75% of the total land area. Apart from the most southern parts of the country, Finland belongs to the boreal coniferous forest zone. The most common tree species are Scots pine (50% of the volume), Norway spruce (30%) and broadleaves, mainly birch (20%).
Figure 1: Annual increment of the grwoing stock and growing stock drain
The total volume of the growing stock in Finnish forests amounts to 2.189 million m3 over bark. Since the late 1960s, the volume and increment of the growing stock have continuously risen and is now 47% higher than four decades ago. The annual increment according to National Forest Inventory (NFI) conducted in 2004-2006 was 98.5 million m3, whereas the annual drain is around 55-65 million m3. Maximum sustainable removal for 2006–2015 is evaluated to be 72 million m3 per year. During the early 2000s’ the amount of wood harvested from private forests has ranged approximately from 40 to 50 million m3 of wood annually.
In 2006 roundwood consumption in Finland totalled 81.5 million m3 of which 90% was used in the forest industries and the additional 10% for energy generation. Finland is one of the leading countries when it comes to utilizing wood for energy purposes. Wood-based fuels currently cover one fifth of the total energy consumption in Finland.
Figure 2: Commercial roundwood removals by forest ownership category, 1970-2006
Finnish forests are a significant sink of carbon. Some 8 billion tonnes of carbon are bound into Finland’s forests of which the biggest amount is bound in the soil.
The total area of protected forests and forests under restricted forestry use in Finland is 2.9 million hectares. This amounts 13% of the total forest area (forest land and scrub land). The share of strictly protected forests - where no human interventions are allowed - is 8.2% of the forest area.
Source: Finnish Statistical Yearbook of Forestry 2007
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2. Forest ownership in Finland
From the forest area:
Privately owned forests 52 %
State-owned forests 35 %
Industrial private 8 %
Others (community, church) 5 %
Private persons - ordinary Finnish citizens - own 52% of all forest land. The number of private forest holdings of at least one hectare is about 440.000. The number of individual private forest owners is estimated at 920.000, which means that almost every fifth Finn is a forest owner. Of the annual increment around 65-70% and of the commercial felling of timber 80-85% comes from privately owned forests.
Figure 3: Forestry land, growing stock and annual increment of the growing stock by forest ownership category
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3. Family forestry in Finland
Finnish forestry is commonly termed family forestry: small-scale forestry run by ordinary families, and passed on as a legacy from one generation to the next.
The structure of family forest ownership is changing due to the age structure of rural population, urbanisation and inheritance. The proportion of farmer-forest owners has decreased, while the number of wage and salary earners and pensioners has increased. In 1970 farmers were still the biggest group to own private forest (76%) when today their share is only about 19%.
Figure 4: Forest owners’ occupation and place of residence
Nowadays non-farmers own 81% of the family forests and pensioners (43%) are the biggest single forest-owner group. The number of women among forest owners is also growing. Despite of the changes, most forest owners (about 60%) still live in the countryside. The average age of a forest owner is 57 years.
Profitability of family forestry
Average size of private forest holding in Finland is around 25 hectares. In southern Finland the holdings are smaller compared to the sizes in northern Finland, where the average is 65 hectares. For many forest owners forest revenues are an important source of income. An average forest holding's annually income from timber sales of about 3.600 euros.
The profitability of wood production can be described by using either stumpage price or the net income of private forests. In 2000s' the gross stumpage revenues obtained annually from the sales of roundwood in family forests have ranged from 1.4 billion € up to 2 billion €. In family forests, the per hectare net profit during the period 2002–2005 was 100 €. There is however a great variation across the country in the net profits. In Northern Finland, the net profit averaged 37 €/ha and in Eastern Finland it was over 135 €/ha.
Family forest owners’ objectives / values
Forest management in Finland is practised with future generations in mind. Due to the large number of forest owners with varying goals the multiple-use of Finnish forests is well presented.
According to surveys almost half (48%) of the family forest owners are so called multiobjective owners, the other groups prioritising recreation (21%), self-employment (18%) and financial security (13%). However, the right to conduct viable forestry is among the objectives emphasised by most of the forest owners.
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4. Forest owner organisations
MTK's Forestry Council is the forest owners' national policy organisation. It operates through the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK). The MTK's Forestry Council looks after private forest owners' interests by providing information on wood markets and prices, influencing forest policy and developing the operation of regional Forest Owners' Unions and local Forest Management Associations.
The purpose of 8 regional Forest Owners Unions is to develop private forestry, look after private forest owners' interest in the region and to guide the Forest Management Associations operations. 112 Forest Management Associations assist forest owners in forest management and wood sales, carry out silvicultural and forest improvement work and raise the professional knowledge and skills of forest owners.
MTK’s own newspaper, Maaseudun Tulevaisuus, comes out three times a week. The newspaper has Finland´s second largest circulation and is red by approximately 350.000 farmers, forest owners and other readers interested in rural affairs.
Figure 5: The organization of Finnish private forestry 2009
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5. Forest certification
About 21.9 million hectares - 95% of Finnish forest area - are certified under the national Finnish Forest Certification System (FFCS). In 2000 the FFCS was endorsed by the international PEFC certification. 311.500 family forest holdings are certified according to this system.
Forest area certified in compliance with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in Finland is about 10.000 hectares.
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6. Forest protection and biodiversity
Forest protection
At the moment, approximately 13% (2.9 million ha) of Finland’s forests are protected. It is almost the same area as the whole area of Belgium. The share of strictly protected forests is 8.2%, whereas in other protected forests different levels of silvicultural measures are allowed.
Figure 6: Forest protection in Finland
Most of the protected forests are in northern Finland, where they account for 22% of the forest area. In Southern Finland most of the forests are privately owned, resulting in smaller amount of protected forests (average at European level). In Northern Finland, where state-owned forests cover a major part of the land area, the amount of conserved or protected forests is the highest in Europe.
Metso Programme – voluntariness as a base for Forest Protection
The Government of Finland approved a new kind of forest protection action plan in March 2008, the Biodiversity Programme for Southern Finland (Metso Programme). The programme is reaching to 2016 and represents new way of thinking in the Finnish forest biodiversity protection.
Earlier the most important way to protect forest biodiversity was to purchase large forest areas to the state of Finland to be strictly protected, with one-sided decisions made by the Government. The tools of the Metso Programme are more or less the opposite: they are voluntary for the forest owner. The main target is to search cost-effective ways to safeguard nature values in private, family-owned forests.
More information from the website of the METSO Programme:
www.metsonpolku.fi
Forest Act, Nature Conservation Act and Act on Wilderness Reserves together with programmes such as EU’s Natura 2000 form the legal basis for biodiversity protection in Finland.
Biodiversity
The biodiversity of forest nature is safeguarded:
1. by ensuring the biodiversity of commercially managed forests, and
2. by ensuring a sufficiently extensive network of conservation areas.
Since the 1990s’ maintaining and protecting biodiversity of forests has been an integral part of sustainable forest management. Today biodiversity is taken into account in a number of ways in the everyday management of Finnish forests. The means to maintain and enhance biodiversity in production forests include e.g. protection of so called key habitats, using of prescribed burning in site preparation, favouring mixed stands when possible, leaving retention trees and decaying wood in forests.
In the Forest Act wood production and biodiversity are given equal importance. A key element of the Forest Act, with regard to safeguarding biodiversity, is defining certain habitats of special importance and giving guidelines concerning how these habitats may be managed. The Act lists seven habitat groups where demanding and endangered species may occur. The forest owner may not take any actions which might affect the site or its special characteristics.
The Nature Conservation Act aims also at maintaining nature's biodiversity, and puts into effect two EU directives: the directives for birds and for habitats.
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7. Forest sector in Finland’s national economy
The forest sector is more important to Finland than to any other western European country. Forest sector’s share of employment in 2006 was almost 4% and the share of GDP 5.6% (2006). The forest sector employed in 2006 directly about 90.000 Finns of which alone around 20.000 working places were in forestry. The forest industry accounts for 24% of total net exports and on average over 80% of its production is exported.
If the whole forest cluster is taken into consideration, the role of forestry and forest industry is even more crucial to the country. The forest cluster employs 8% of the working population in Finland, i.e. some 150.000 people and accounts for almost 10% of the total GDP. The forest cluster is a pool of know-how, research institutes and businesses related to forestry, starting from forest management to consulting services and highly sophisticated computer-controlled paper machinery.
Forest sector contributes more than 5% of the GDP in all provinces except from most southern parts and south-western parts of Finland. In the whole Eastern Finland the forest sectors’ share of the GDP is more than 10%.
Figure 7: The forest sector’s share of GDP by regions in 2006
Value of wood and non-wood products
In year 2006 forest products amounted for following values:
Outdoor recreation is an integral part of the Finnish life. The traditional Everyman's Right guarantees free access to forests and offers good opportunities for people to go hiking, skiing and picking wild berries and mushrooms.
Hunting also has long traditions in Finnish society. In 2006 hunting resulted into 12.4 million kilogrammes of meat which value in total was 74.4 million euros. Moose is the most hunted game animal in Finland. In 2008 hunters felled in total 57.700 moose.
Reindeer farming in northern parts of Finland is a traditional source of livelihood. The incomes from butchering lie around 11-14 million euros annually but in the refining process the value of the meat triples. Total value of the reindeer farming sales are evaluated to be around 50 million euros per year.
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8. Forest policy
Finnish forest legislation was completely reformed in the 1990s. The new Nature Conservation Act was also drawn up in close accordance with the Forest Act reform. The new forest law now focuses on promoting sustainable forestry including the economic, social and ecological aspects.
The National Forest Programme (NFP) of Finland is the cornerstone and strategic base of the Finnish forest policy. The NFP aims to ensure forest-based work and livelihoods, biodiversity and vitality of forests, and opportunities for recreation for all citizens. The programme was prepared as an open process between all stakeholders in forest issues. The cooperation continues in the implementation, follow-up and development of the NFP.
The Finnish Government approved the first NFP in 1999, and since 2000 it has been implemented as part of the Government Programme. The implementation of the NFP is coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry with the help of the Forest Council and its Secretariat and Working Groups. The Forest Council is an advisory board which supports the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Different administrative sectors, forest industries, NGOs and expert organisations have their representatives in the Forest Council.
The revision of the NFP was started in autumn 2005 and was made according to the guidelines set out in the Government Programme of Prime Minister Vanhanen's Cabinet. The Government made a decision in principle on the new NFP in March 2008 when it decided to extend the programme until 2015. This decision was made together with the decision on the Forest Biodiversity Programme for Southern Finland (METSO) 2008-2016.
More information from the National Forest Programmes website:
http://www.mmm.fi/en/index/frontpage/forests/nfp.html
The regional governmental authority is the Forestry Centre, which bears the responsibility for supervising the implementation of the Forest Act and for promoting sustainable forest management.
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