Forest as Part of Finnish Identity
To understand Finnish forestry properly, one
must understand the special relationship between the people of Finland and
their forests. Forests are needed to
provide the isolation that makes summer cottages paradise for so many
Finns. Forest berries (mustikka,
puolukka, juolukka) and mushrooms (kantarelle) feature prominently in much of
the traditional and even modern cuisine.
The importance of the forests and rural settings is even enshrined in
national landscape artwork and major political parties.
Most forests are owned by private individuals, mostly by families. This decreases the average private forest size to 32 ha [4]. Image from [4]. |
Evolution of a Sustainable Resource
Finland's forests have been its primary resource
since before any sort of national title applied to the country. The
forests contained “endless” forest for slash-and-burn agriculture, food to eat,
firewood to cook it, and furs to stay warm in the winter. More recently,
the resources have proven valuable for other reasons - fur could be traded for
luxury goods (which at one point included carrots!) as trade routes were
developed, and trees could be processed into lumber and tar to help assemble
navies as conflict was sparked between growing states. The sustainability
of well-managed forest resources can help sustain economies that include them,
as Finland's certainly does, though global markets for the products also have
an external influence. It is interesting to look at the evolution of
Finnish forestry practices to see how the country has managed its most important
resource through time.
Image from [5]. |
Nascent Finland
During the years where Finland was developing
its national identity (loosely, 1800s), there were many examples unsustainable
deforestation caused “timber famines” in many European countries. Sweden in the 18th and early 19th
century (which included Finland at the time) saw countries like Denmark deplete
their forest resources and therefore attempted to put themselves on a different
track. Interestingly, the culprits they
identified are rather similar to those seen by modern organizations – specific
technologies such as inefficient stoves and slash-and-burn farming caused
problems, but poverty, ignorance and underemployment of peasants was seen as
another important hurdle that had to be addressed.
The State of Modern Finnish Forest Management
Modern Finnish forestry is an excellent example
of sustainable resource extraction.
Around 60 km3 of wood are harvested each year while 75 km3
grows. This sustains the forest for its
own sake and also increases the amount that can be harvested. Much of this wood today is harvested for
processing into paper, so the global decline of this product means that
revenues have shrunk. In fact, in the
last hundred years the forest-product share of the total Finnish export market
decreased from 80% to 20%; paper makes up three quarters of this export.
Finnish Nature as a Resource
Sustainable Yet Intensive Harvesting
Sustainable forest harvesting is very different
from preserving forests in their pristine state, and Finnish forests are
decidedly an example of the former rather than the later. By the numbers, a full 3% of the total volume
of wood in the forests is currently harvested each year, so it would take, on
average, roughly 33 years to harvest the entire country’s stock. Forestry has been ongoing for much longer
than that, so there is little (if any) undisturbed forest in Finland. A number of parks have been created to
preserve some natural areas; these make up around 13% of land area in the
country, and Finland has specially protected the largest percent of its forests
(~4%) of any European country.
Parks cover 13% of Finland. The country has the largest percent of its land protected (~4%) of any European country [1]. Image from [3]. |
Effects of Forest Management on Forest Character
A natural forest contains many things that are
suboptimal for the forest industry.
These include dead and dry branches that help fuel natural forest fires,
slow-growing tree species, and forest stands containing trees of a variety of
ages, species, and sizes. Therefore, in
Finland’s modern carefully-managed forests, many of these do not exist. Forest fires are extremely uncommon because
the deadwood fuel is removed and they are quickly brought under control if they
do begin. Foresters try to maintain a
healthy mix of tree species but have shifted the population to favor
faster-growing species.
By the Numbers
- 76% of Finland is forest [1]
- 13% of this is protect forest [3]
- 2 meters is defined as taller than the tallest tree above the "timber line" [1]
- 2,000,000,000 cubic meters of wood in Finland's forests [2]
- 75,000,000 cubic meters (4%) grow annually, 60,000,000 (3%) cubic meters harvested [2]
- ~20 indigenous tree species [2]
[1] State of Finland's Forests 2012: Finnish forests and forest management in a nutshell - http://www.metla.fi/metinfo/sustainability/SF-1.htm, retrieved 26 August 2013
[2] Boreal Forests of the World; Finland - Forests and Forestry - http://www.borealforest.org/world/world_finland.htm, retrieved 26 August 2013
[3] State of Finland's Forests 2012: Criterion 4 Biological diversity - http://www.metla.fi/metinfo/sustainability/c4-protected-forests.htm, retrieved 26 August 2013
[4] Essay in Finnish forestry and forest industries, by Micha Hochstrate - http://www.hochstrate.de/micha/finnland/reports/finishf.html, retrieved 26 August 2013
[5] Forests – an integrated part of Finnish life, by J. Heino and J. Karvonen - http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y9882e/y9882e02.htm, retrieved 26 August 2013
[6] Writing about the Past with Green Ink The Emergence of Finnish Environmental History, by Timo Myllyntaus - http://www.h-net.org/~environ/historiography/finland.htm, retrieved 26 August 2013
[4] Essay in Finnish forestry and forest industries, by Micha Hochstrate - http://www.hochstrate.de/micha/finnland/reports/finishf.html, retrieved 26 August 2013
[5] Forests – an integrated part of Finnish life, by J. Heino and J. Karvonen - http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y9882e/y9882e02.htm, retrieved 26 August 2013
[6] Writing about the Past with Green Ink The Emergence of Finnish Environmental History, by Timo Myllyntaus - http://www.h-net.org/~environ/historiography/finland.htm, retrieved 26 August 2013
[7] Natura 2000 in the Boreal Region - http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/info/pubs/docs/biogeos/Boreal.pdf, retrieved 26 August 2013