Experience of Forestry Revitalization in Finland

Finland's forests have also suffered serious damage in history, and the land is swampy, afforestation is very difficult; high latitude, forest growth cycle is very short. But after World War II, Finland's forests were restored and developed with the help of advanced management and afforestation techniques.

Although Finland lost 13% of its forest area due to the loss of territory and the Second World War, the current forest resources are more abundant than before the Second World War. According to the latest forest resource inventory in Finland (2004-2008), the forest coverage rate reached 76%; the forest storage is equivalent to the total logging and utilization in the past 40 years; the annual growth of standing trees has nearly doubled compared with the 1970 s. The southern part reaches 6.1 cubic meters per hectare per year, which is twice the annual growth in the northern part.

Relying on its strong forest industry chain and at the forefront of information technology, Finland's forest industry is developed and highly export-oriented. Finland is the world's second largest exporter of paper and paperboard, the third largest exporter of sawn timber products, the fourth largest exporter of pulp, and a pioneer in the use of wood construction and wood energy. In 2011, Finnish forest exports accounted for 6% of global exports and 11% of European forest exports. As one of the main pillars of the Finnish economy, forestry is second only to the electronics and electrical industries in the national economy. The forestry sector employs 69000 people, or 2.8 per cent of total employment, well above the world average of 0.4 per cent.

Under the current international situation of global economic downturn, environmental protection and increasing pressure of climate change, Finland's forest and forestry development shows new trends: in response to the expanding domestic demand for wood and the increase in import costs, it will use more domestic wood and strengthen forest cultivation in the future; increase afforestation efforts and develop sustainable forestry production. In the future, Finland will rely more on domestic forests to develop the forestry industry; increase the use of forestry biomass energy. Forestry biomass energy is another important goal of Finland's national economic development. Finland currently accounts for 24% of energy consumption in forestry biomass energy, and plans to increase it to 38.5 by 2020. This means that Finland's forests The further development and utilization orientation of the forest industry will prosper again. Finland has designed three special objectives for the forest industry, including competitiveness, profitability and biodiversity, environmental benefits and welfare, and further divided the work into two supporting processes, namely forest industry capacity and international and EU forest affairs. At the same time, specific implementation measures are proposed for different parts. With these efforts, the current downward trend in the forestry industry is expected to be reversed and the industry will prosper again.

The experience of Finnish forest management is worth learning from.

The first is long-term planning and regular assessment of forest development, and dynamic adjustment of objectives and action measures in the light of actual needs.

The National Forest Plan, developed with broad public participation by the Finnish Parliament in 1999, is the most comprehensive forestry plan in Finland to date, with the main objectives of log production, silviculture investment, standing stock and growth, forest revenue, energy production, forest industry export value, employment in the forestry sector, biodiversity conservation, recreation and multi-purpose forestry, forestry skills, international forestry policy, etc. Specific action plans have been developed for the objectives and forest industry councils have been established to implement them. In the face of the new development environment and challenges, combined with the results of regular evaluation of the implementation of the plan, Finland revised its national forest plan in 2007.

The second is to manage forests scientifically, protect biodiversity and play many other functions.

Over the past 30 years, the total amount of forest resources and forest growth in Finland have been increasing, which is closely related to scientific forest management and increasing investment in forest management. On the one hand, it attaches great importance to the main felling and forest regeneration, on the other hand, it implements scientific tending and thinning. The plantation shall be felled for at least 3 times in a business cycle. When formulating forest management plans for private forest owners, professionals from regional forestry development centers and forest owners associations should put forward detailed suggestions on the number of thinning, thinning time, thinning amount and even environmental protection. Finally, forest production and environmental protection measures should be organically combined to enable efficient and sustainable production, while protecting biodiversity and providing a variety of other ecological services.

Third, the social service system is perfect, closely combining decentralized operation with scale operation.

In addition to the macro-management of the government, social service organizations such as private forest owners management associations have played an important role in Finnish forestry. Many new policies, information, knowledge and services are disseminated to small private forest owners through these organizations. At the same time, the interests of private forest owners on important issues such as timber prices are also guaranteed by the association. Social service organizations are the link between the government and private forest owners, and connect the decentralized management of private forest owners into a certain scale, which improves the efficiency of private forest management. As an important intermediary, private forest owners management associations play a decisive role in adjusting small-scale forestry to the external environment in terms of technology and methods, and promote the rationalization of the internal structure of small-scale private forestry.

(2015/8/14 Source: China Green Times Author: Wu Shuirong)