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Support for forest owners
Individual forest owners are increasingly benefiting from the subsi-
dized forest utilization and management planning and advisory
services provided by the 13 regional forestry centres and 105 local
forest management associations that provide services for forest
owners.
Forest owners planning certain types of forest management and
improvement measures (including the tending of seedling stands,
improvements in young stands and the construction and improve-
ment of forest roads) may apply for subsidies under Finland’s Act
on the Financing of Sustainable Forestry.
In 2010, subsidies amounting to 80 million euros were paid out
to finance sustainable forest improvement measures in 71,000 forest
holdings across Finland. Forest legislation and official guidelines on
sustainable forestry are to be revamped under NFP 2015 to further
encourage forest owners to manage their forests responsibly and
sustainably.
Conserving biodiversity
According to the major State of Finland’s Forests 2011 report,
produced by the Finnish Forest Research Institute, ‘safeguarding
the biodiversity of forest environments has been established as a
standard point of interest in forest management alongside wood
production’. An impressive 13 per cent of forests are under protec-
tion, but protected areas mainly encompass relatively unproductive
forests in the north, and there has long been a need to protect biodi-
versity in regions where commercial forestry is more prevalent.
The METSO forest biodiversity programme for Southern Finland
has been set up in parallel to the NFP to help achieve national biodi-
versity goals. This programme differs from previous
Finnish nature conservation policies in that landowners
are not obliged to participate in compulsory purchase
schemes, but instead receive compensation for entering
into voluntary agreements that establish private nature
reserves in forests that remain their property.
Compensation for forest owners
Forest owners have keenly participated in competitive
tendering schemes, which allow them to leave trees
standing in their forests while receiving compensation
for the lost income they would otherwise have gained
from timber sales.
Compensation is also paid for tailored forest manage-
ment measures to enhance biodiversity in specific
sites, selected for features such as natural springs and
streams, mature trees, nutrient-rich soils or abundance
of decaying wood.
Experts from Helsinki University have devised a tool
known as Zonation, which applies GPS data on a wide
range of ecological parameters to target the most valuable
sites, enhancing the connectivity of protected areas to
establish ‘green corridors’. The Zonation tool has been
piloted in the South Savo region with favourable results.
New climate of collaboration
By replacing a top-down approach to forest protection
with a bottom-up approach, METSO has successfully
built up a climate of cooperation between landown-
Logging residues are widely collected and chipped for use generating renewable energy. The increased use of sustainably harvested energy wood is a key element
of Finland’s forest policies – and also provides welcome extra income for forest-owners
Image: Jouko Parviainen, Wenet