Forests for People

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Finland – A green economy and rural

livelihoods in Europe’s most forested country

Marjukka Mähönen, Department of Forest, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Finland

and Fran Weaver, TMI Francis Weaver

inland’s vast forests, which cover more than three quarters

of the country, are central to both the national economy

and people’s everyday lives. Most forests are family-

owned and everyone in Finland has the legal right of access to

forests, which are widely used for activities from hiking and

skiing to hunting, picking wild berries and mushrooms, or just

relaxing in natural surroundings.

The forest sector generates as much as 5 per cent of Finland’s gross

domestic product and accounts for almost 20 per cent of exports by

value, the highest for any European country. As many as 200,000

of Finland’s 5.4 million inhabitants are employed in the paper and

timber industries, forestry and other forest-related businesses.

Successive National Forest Programmes (NFPs), including the

current NFP 2015, have long been used as a basis for policymaking

across many administrative sectors. Thanks to the systematic planning

of forestry at national level since Finland’s independence in 1917,

forest resources are profitably and sustainably utilized in industry and

construction, and also increasingly to produce renewable bioenergy.

Although the state owns large forest areas, particularly in the

sparsely populated northern and eastern regions, Finland’s forest

industries must also obtain wood from a uniquely large number of

small suppliers. About 60 per cent of the country’s forests are small

private holdings owned by families, and as many as one in eight Finns

own forest holdings. A unique national programme encourages these

private owners to consider biodiversity when managing their forests.

The timber stocks in Finland’s forests have increased in recent

decades and today amount to 2,200 million cubic metres of wood.

Although there is no need for afforestation programmes, legislation

ensures that viable new stands are established after felling, using

acceptable planting or natural regeneration methods. Finland’s

forests constitute a considerable carbon sink, estimated to compen-

sate for more than half of national greenhouse gas emissions.

Multiple uses of wood

There are about 50 pulp and paper mills in Finland and to compen-

sate for recent capacity reductions, investment is now aimed at the

production of innovative new wood-based products and the increas-

ing use of wood to generate energy.

Wood already accounts for about 20 per cent of Finland’s total

energy use, due to the intensive use of by-products from pulp- and

paper-making processes to generate heat and power. As part of the

EU’s efforts to combat climate change, Finland aims to generate 38 per

cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, compared to about

28 per cent today. To bridge this energy gap, Finland’s renewable

energy policies envisage a massive increase in the use of woodchips

at local heating plants, in step with a wider increase in

the industrial use of wood.

Large piles of ‘energy wood’, consisting of branches,

tree crowns, stumps and young trees thinned out from

growing stands, are already a common sight by road-

sides in rural Finland, drying out in preparation for

chipping and transportation to local heating plants.

Finland is also pioneering the development and use of

innovative biorefinery products derived from wood that

can be used instead of fossil fuels in industry, heating

and transportation, as part of a national drive to create

a green economy.

Sustainable products and services

The NFP is boosting the demand for wood by supporting

the development of local wood processing businesses.

Timber construction is gaining ground with wooden

houses as well as larger buildings and structures such

as bridges and football stadiums. The NFP and regional

rural development programmes are also encouraging

production of a wide range of non-wood forest prod-

ucts including game, foodstuffs, medicinal products,

cosmetic ingredients and textiles.

Finland’s forests – and particularly protected areas

such as national parks – are increasingly used for

nature-based tourism, recreation and environmen-

tal education. This income-producing trend has been

promoted through a wide-ranging programme for the

development of nature tourism and the recreational use

of nature (VILMAT).

The human dimension

First drafted in 2008, NFP 2015 is designed to ensure

systematic planning at national level while also meeting

the needs of forest owners and other stakeholders at the

local level. It was extensively revised in 2010 to reflect

changes in economic conditions and new forest-related

policies within the programme of the new Finnish

Government elected in spring 2011. The programme

incorporates a detailed action plan, which helps admin-

istrative sectors and agencies to obtain the necessary

support and funding. It receives substantial contributions

from the private sector in addition to public funding.

The importance of the NFP is recognized across

Finnish society, thanks to the uniquely wide scope

of stakeholder participation in the drafting of the