Consumables

Stora Enso is committed to protecting old-growth forests

Friday 20. February 2009 - Some Finnish environmental organisations have called for further protection in the Finnish Forest Lapland areas where Metsähallitus has been logging during the winter.

They claim that the areas are old-growth forests since they have found some 300-year-old trees in the log piles. Stora Enso is among the recipients of the wood and has therefore been criticised.

The average age of the harvesting sites under criticism vary from 80 to 200 years. According to the Finnish Forest Act, forests in the region reach regeneration age after about 140 years. While it is possible to find single trees which can be up to 300-year-old, they are normally left standing as retention trees.

Stora Enso is committed to protecting old-growth forests and has supported many multi-stakeholder processes in doing so in northern Finland since 1996. We do not buy wood from forests which have been defined as old-growth in a national stakeholder process.

Metsähallitus has recognized the demands of the environmental organisations and thus carried out further inventories in these areas. Some of these areas were reclassified as ‘natural forest with special nature values’ and have been left out of commercial logging. The other areas remain classified as ‘normal commercial forests’ where logging can be carried out. Metsähallitus, however, has no plans for further logging in the areas defined by the environmental organisations in Forest Lapland this winter.

According to the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, a uniquely diverse network of both protected and wilderness areas have been created in Lapland. The EU Commission also recognises that Finland has achieved an adequate level of protection in its boreal forests. Stora Enso also sees that the ecological values of the forests in Forest Lapland have been safeguarded, as already 43% of the forests are protected.

Stora Enso’s position is that it can receive wood from those areas now addressed by the environmental organisations, as they meet FSC Controlled Wood requirements. Audits carried out by Stora Enso Wood Supply Finland in the logging areas confirm this.

Stora Enso has recently discussed the matter with Greenpeace and Metsähallitus, and encourages all relevant stakeholders to participate in the dialogue face-to-face.