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“Northern wood is a valuable raw material, so it must be used wisely.” Anne Uusitalo, Product Safety and Sustainability Director, Metsä Board
With the permission of forest owners, Metsä Group has been making high biodiversity stumps in its thin- ning and felling operations since 2016. High biodiver- sity stumps are trees cut at a height of about 2–5 me- tres, and their idea is to produce decaying wood faster in the forest. High biodiversity stumps are now also required in the PEFC certification if the felling area does not otherwise have enough dead wood. With the permission of forest owners, Metsä Group will continue to make high biodiversity stumps, four for each hectare, to ensure that there is a wide range of decaying wood in the forest, benefiting various spe- cies such as wood decay organisms, insects and, lat- er, cavity nesters. According to the certification rules, only continu- ous-cover harvesting is allowed on buffer zones of wa- terbodies, and the ground surface must be kept un- disturbed. The buffer zones are used to safeguard the condition of waterbodies as well as biodiversity of the species in the area. What are a carbon sink and carbon storage, and how do they relate to forestry? When the forest binds more carbon dioxide than it releases into the atmosphere, it is considered a carbon sink. As trees photosynthesise, carbon dioxide is stored in the wood and in the ground as carbon, creating a carbon storage. As the forest grows older, its ability to bind carbon dioxide deteriorates, but old-growth forests are very important for carbon storage. However, as the trees die and decay, they gradually start releasing the car- bon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Old-growth forests can also be vulnerable to various kinds of nat- ural damage. To ensure the health and good growth of a forest, the forest should be managed through- out its rotation period. However, forests of all ages are needed to ensure biodiversity.
nate from a region where, for example, citizens’ rights are being violated. This “controlled wood” cannot originate from forests whose use threatens high con- servation values or causes deforestation. Further- more, the wood we use can be traced all the way from the mill to the stump,” says Pitkänen-Arte. In Finland, many of the global requirements of for- est certification, such as human rights and the prohi- bition of child labour, are already statutory require- ments.
What does biodiversity mean, and how is it considered in forestry?
Finnish forests are home to nearly 25,000 species. Different species require different features from their habitat. Even regeneration areas have a unique vari- ety of species, while other species are adapted to life among seedlings or in old-growth forests. “Natural biodiversity can be supported through na- ture management. In our commercial forest opera- tions, we do this by leaving retention trees and dead trees, as well as making high biodiversity stumps to ensure that species dependent on decaying wood have their habitats. Retention trees are trees that are not harvested during felling, but are instead left in the forest and eventually die naturally, supporting the continuity of decaying wood in the forest. Forest cer- tification also requires leaving decaying trees, reten- tion trees and thickets in felling areas, as well as buff- er zones along shores,” says Pitkänen-Arte. “Metsä Group only procures spruce, pine, birch and aspen with a diameter below 40 cm and thus does not procure more rare deciduous tree species in its wood sourcing. These rare deciduous species are beneficial to serve as retention trees. Additional- ly, trees such as nesting trees of birds of prey, nesting hole trees, sturdy juniper, large aspen, trees with fire wounds and old retention trees are all used as reten- tion trees,” she continues.
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