Old-growth forest logging in Finnish state forests in March 20001: PEFC -certified old-growth destruction

Activists of the Nature League protest on site on Friday March 16th 2001

The Finnish state forestry enterprise is clearcutting a valuable old-growth forest in Saarijärvi, Suomussalmi, eastern Finland. Activists of the Nature League protest on site on Friday March 16th 2001.

Saarijärvi is one of the Finnish old-growth forests that environmental NGOs have listed as most valuable. The Finnish state forestry enterprise Metsahallitus, Forest and Park Service (FPS) has began to log the 20 heactare old-growth heath last week and it will be logged entirely.

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.

Photo: charasterics of ecologically valuable old-growth forest are clearly visible: lichens, trees with different ages, decaying trees in different stages on the ground.

Photo: old-growth forest before logging, photographed in summer 2000. Hundreds of years old trees with signs of old forest fires.