The Forest Biodiversity Programme for Southern Finland (METSO) 2008-2016
The METSO Forest Biodiversity Programme aims to halt the ongoing decline in forest species and habitats and establish favourable trends in forest biodiversity by 2016. The emphasis is on forests in Southern Finland. This programme was approved by the Finnish Government in March 2008 together with a new National Forest Programme for 2015.
The programme has been designed to benefit biodiversity by improving Finland’s network of protected areas and by enhancing the forestry methods used in commercially managed forests. Conservation schemes will largely be based on the voluntary participation of landowners willing to safeguard biodiversity in their own forests.
Conservation schemes and the natural management of forest habitats will be widely realised through temporary or permanent agreements, depending on the nature of the areas needing conservation. Some areas may also be purchased by the State for designation as permanently protected areas. Compensation will be paid to landowners according to legislation in the Nature Conservation Act or the Act on the Financing of Sustainable Forestry.
The METSO Programme will also speed up the expansion of existing protected areas to include a total area of 10,000 hectares of State-owned commercially managed forest previously designated for conservation. The State forestry agency Metsähallitus will also draft land use plans to prioritise the conservation of biodiversity in ecologically important areas, aiming to expand and interlink forest areas of value to biodiversity.
The joint work of forestry organisations and environmental organisations, official advisory services for forest owners, and training and publicity work related to forestry will all be expanded and enhanced. More research and monitoring will be carried out to improve our knowledge of forest biodiversity and the best ways to preserve it.
Funding
The measures within the METSO Programme will largely be financed through the annual framework budgets allocated to the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Previous Government resolutions have already guaranteed funding for the programme amounting to 182 million euros by 2012.
More Information:
Counsellor Ilkka Heikkinen, Minisrty of the Environment,
firstname.lastname@ymparisto.fi, tel. +358 40 506 1172
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