www.luontoliitto.fi/forest/background

WHY PROTECT OLD-GROWTH FORESTS?

Finland is a highly forested country and a high percentage of this is managed effectively. Nonetheless, Finland's forests are currently experiencing a massive biodiversity crisis. Despite the large forest area, very few forests remain in a natural or semi-natural state. The small area of remaining old-growth forest in Finland is under serious threat. Present forest protection network in Finland is inadequate and needs to be improved considerably.

>>> Finnish old-growth forests: An overview at the beginning of the new millennium
>>> More about the reasons for forest protection
>>> Last of the Last - the remaining old-growth forests in boreal Europe

ARTICLES ABOUT OLD-GROWTH FOREST SITUATION

TOO MUCH OF EXTINCTION DEBT One thousand species are in danger of disappearing because the old-growth forests of Southern Finland have been fragmented into pieces too small to survive in, according to the academy professor Ilkka Hanski.

Professor Hanski writes in the main Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (January 9, 1999): "If the aim is to prevent the mass extinction of old-growth forest species, all the remaining somewhat natural-state old-growth forests have to be left out of commercial utilization."

>>> The whole article (Helsingin Sanomat, January 9, 1999)

ONLY FRAGMENTS REMAIN OF FINNISH OLD-GROWTH FORESTS Logging the old-growth forests is not nature protection: leading ecologist of Finland critisizes the Ecological Landscape Planning
>>> Read the whole article (Helsingin Sanomat, February 15, 1997)

LOGGING IN HIGH ALTITUDES Finnish state enterprise Forest & Park Service starts logging high altitude areas which are very fragile and where regeneration is mostly likely not to succeed.
>>> Read the whole article (Helsingin Sanomat, September 27, 1997)

 

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All translations by the Finnish Nature League

Taiga Rescue Network: Hotspots in Europe
Friends of the Earth UK: Wildwoods campaign