Protecting forests 

	© Marja Pylvänäinen

Some 8.9% of Finland´s forests¹ are protected (2005). About 4.5 of all the forestland is strictly protected, meaning that forestry cannot be practised. The proportion of Finland´s total land area covered by strictly protected forests is about four times higher than the European average.

Protected areas

Forests have traditionally been protected by designating nature reserves. Finnish forests have been protected through the national parks and strict nature reserves programme, as well as under various conservation programmes covering specific habitat types including shores, herb-rich woodlands, eskers, mires and old-growth forests. Finland´s most extensive protected forests are in the Urho Kekkonen National Park (1,150 km² of forest) and the Lemmenjoki National Park (910 km² of forest).

Twelve extensive wilderness areas in northern Lapland have additionally been designated under the Wilderness Act, while seven national hiking areas have been established around Finland under the Outdoor Recreation Act. Many sites protected in the Natura 2000 network also contain forests. The organisation responsible for the management of State-owned forests in Finland - Metsähallitus - has additionally defined protected areas, and many other reserves have been designated in privately owned forests.

	© Marja Pylvänäinen

Finland´s Nature Conservation Act specifies certain habitat types or biotopes that must be protected, including common alder mires, wooded meadows, and naturally developed woodlands with many nemoral broad-leaved trees. Such habitats may not be altered in ways that endanger their valuable natural features. Such habitats are relatively few and far between, however, and by 10.6.2005 a total area of just 684.3 hectares had been designated for protection.

Finland´s protected forests are administered by the national nature conservation administration.

Innovative conservation tools

The need for further protection of forests is greatest in Southern Finland, where protected forests are smaller and fewer than in other regions. The METSO Forest Biodiversity Programme for Southern Finland aims to effectively combine the conservation of biodiversity with the commercial use of forests. The programme’s measures include innovative voluntary conservation schemes applied in privately owned forests. A new METSO Programme for the period 2008-2016 was approved by the Government on 27.3.2008, and will be co-ordinated by the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

The pilot phase of the METSO-programme (2002-2007) tested new means to promote biodiversity in privately owned forests involving voluntarily commitments from landowners to protect their own forests. Some of these schemes involve natural values trading, where in return for financial compensation landowners commit themselves for specified periods to manage ecologically valuable areas of forest where rare species may occur. The pilot phase also included funding for several research projects focusing on forest biodiversity.

Safeguarding biodiversity in commercially managed forests

Most of Finland´s forests are commercially managed for the purposes of timber production. Forest biodiversity depends very much on how these forests are managed, as well as on the designation of protected areas. 

National policies related to Finland´s forests are defined by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The most important principles, objectives and guidelines related to forest policies are set out in the National Forest Programme for 2015. 

The government-run enterprise Metsähallitus manages State-owned forest properties and publicly owned assets including national parks and other protected areas. The Finnish Forest Research Institute conducts research projects designed to promote the economically, ecologically and socially sustainable use and management of Finland´s forests. 

¹ The figures shown here for forests include non-productive forestland where the annual growth increment is 0.1-1.0 cubic metres of timber per hectare. In productive forest land the annual increment is at least 1 m³/ha.