Finland is the most forested country in Europe, with forestry land covering about 86% level of whole land area of the country, according to Finnish Forest Association. (See picture 1) So, it’s not a surprise, that on their web-site I found this interesting quote: “Forests are rooted in the Finnish way of life – in its full meaning. Forest is a state of mind”. Definitely, forests play vital role in Finland, because they provide needed timber, food (mushrooms, berries) and fresh air. As well as they are homes for many species of trees, plants, animals, insects, microorganisms and others. PICTURE 1. Land of forests (Finnish Forest Association, 2016) Finns care a lot about sustainable forest management because of importance and necessity of forests in their lives. Forest protection is an essential part of it. The first step was made already in 19th century with the very first Forest Act in 1886, which prohibited destruction of forests in Finland. Nowadays forest ownership is protected by legislation and voluntary certification. This means that forest owners must ensure that after felling a new forest will replace the old one. Almost all commercial forest areas in the country are certified with PEFC (Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification) or FSC standard (Forest Stewardship Council), which results in 90 % and 6 % respectively. Certification establishes the standard of silviculture and helps to improve biodiversity of Finnish forests. (Finnish Forest Association, 2016) Finland has the biggest share of protected forests in Europe. The area of protected forests in Finland has tripled during the past 35 years. (MetsäBoard, 2016) Using timber from certified sources, companies ensure that all wood is harvested legally and can be traced back to their natural environment, which prevent illegal import/export of timber, pulp and paperboard. As an example of good forest management, we can consider MetsäBoard. This company promote sustainable forestry and forest certification, so that all wood would be safe and legal, while forest’s biodiversity and recreation quality would be preserved. For each tree harvested, 4 new seedlings are planted instead, in order to renew forests with fresh trees. Sustainability in forest matter implies that almost every part of each tree will be used for the purpose it suits best, to reduce number of waste in whole process. For example, the main stem is used for construction purposes, while smaller parts of the stem are for pulp, branches and so on, and other parts of discarded wood supply to bioenergy sphere. (MetsäBoard) An example of this multiple usage of the wood can be seen from the picture below. PICTURE 2. Annual timber flow in Finland in 2014 (Finnish Forest Association, 2016) The Natural Resources Institute Finland reported in 2014 that annual the growth of forest area in Finland is around 105 million m³ of timber and exceeds annual forest removal. This fact means that the amount of timber in Finnish forests increases every year and sustainable forestry works. With all the importance of the forests, we shouldn’t forget also, that there are simply beautiful and need our care, then they will make us happy :) PICTURE 3. Remote Finnish road (Yunakovskiy Artem, 2013)
Author: Yunakovskiy Artem References: Natural Resources Institute Finland, 2014, accessed 2.11.2016, http://www.metla.fi/index-en.html Finnish Forest Association, 2016, accessed 2.11.2016, http://www.smy.fi/en/ MetsäBoard, 2016, accessed 3.11.2016, http://www.metsaboard.com/Pages/default.aspx |
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May 2019
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