Finnish Forestry








 The Forests of Finland



Finland is a country with extensive forest resources. Over two thirds of
the land area is covered by forest. It is one of the few countries in the
world that has only boreal forests. These forests are dominated by
spruce, pine and birch, however there are some hardwoods as well. The
Finnish forests are characterized by being naturally even-aged and having
relatively little species diversity. There is usually very little
understory and access to the forest is easy.

Forest management has a long tradition in Finland. Finns became concerned
about sustaining their forest resources as early as 1880's when the first
forestry laws came into effect. Since then, forest management has been
actively developed and this has resulted in an increase in the volume of
the growing stock. Currently, the annual volume increment exceeds the
removals by roughly 30 million cubic meters. The total removals are a
little over 50 million cubic meters per year.

One factor that has favored sustainable forest management has been the
distribution of forest ownership. Most of the country's forests are owned
by private individuals (mostly farmers) who want to make sure that their
children and grandchildren can enjoy the forests the same way that they
have. There are also active forest owners associations that employ
professional foresters who draw up ten year management plans for private
forest owners at a very low cost.

Even though most of the forests are privately owned, it is not only the
forest owners who benefit from them. In Finland the public right of
access gives all Finns access to forests regardless of who owns the
forest. Anybody can go to a private forest to hike, pick mushrooms and
berries without needing a special permit. However, overnight camping and
campfires do require permission from the landowner.

The forest industry in Finland is very well developed, with the paper
industry as its backbone. The Finns have specialized in producing value
added, high quality printing and writing papers. Finland's share of the
printing and writing paper exports in the world is roughly 25% -
astonishing for a country with only .5% of the world's forests! Finland
also has a wood processing industry, which produces softwood lumber and
wood based panels. Finnish birch plywood is especially well known in the
world market.

The importance of the forest industry has had an indirect influence on
the rest of the economy and forestry related products dominate the export
market. Since the second world war, forest machinery has become an
increasingly important export. A major share of the machinery industry's
exports are for wood processing, pulping or paper making. Recently,
increased amounts of harvesting machinery has also been exported.

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