Clearcut in Finnish old-growth forests goes on. January 2001: forest of Petro in municipality of Hyrynsalmi

In January 2001, the Forest and Park Service clearcut over 10 hectares of old-growth forest in the area of Petro. The forest was surrounded by mires and waterways in a natural state. A very narrow buffer zone, less than 10 metres in width, was left on the banks of the river.

Hundreds of years old Scots pines were discovered standing on the clearcut site as well as in the log piles. Sources of information: local contact, field trip.

Buyers of the timber: StoraEnso (photos of labelled log piles), UPM-Kymmene (a timber truck photographed and followed from the logging site to the Kajaani mill)

This forest has been certified according to the Pan-European Forest Certification Scheme PEFC as are 95% of Finnish forests. PEFC has been claimed to be a proof of sustainable forest management but the on going destruction of the last Finnish old-growth forests shows that PEFC is nothing but a widely spread greenwashing scheme.