Metsä Group cooperates with its owner-members in many ways to safeguard the future health and vitality of Finnish forests. In accordance with our forest management principle, we plant and sow naturally occurring tree species to which our other forest species are adapted. We also increase the variety of naturally occurring tree species in the forests. Finland has around 30 natural tree species. Metsä Group purchases and converts five of these, leaving the remaining 25 in the forest to enrich forest nature.
In addition to planted seedlings and sown seeds, some deciduous trees always start growing naturally in Finnish forests. We maintain the share of deciduous trees across all forest management stages because a homogeneous forest structure enables the rapid growth of pest populations. We also look after biodiversity. For example, decaying wood plays an important role in providing a home to rivals of pests: predators and parasites.
It takes time for trees to adapt to a changing climate. This makes the ground rule – the right tree species on the right site – more important than ever. Of our domestic tree species, the shallow-rooted spruce is expected to suffer most from climate warming. Metsä Group’s owner-members have woken up to climate change, and they have decreased spruce cultivation more than the national average.
The mixed cultivation of pine and spruce in regeneration areas is also becoming increasingly popular. It’s important to keep in mind that the choices we make today will have a lasting impact on the kind of forests we’ll have in tomorrow’s changed climate.
Climate change will affect our forests and increase the risk of damage. Despite the climate warming, we must not give up. How the risks are realised depends largely on the vitality of forests. The trees we plant and cultivate now will take 60–80 years to mature. By then, it is estimated that the average temperature in Finland will have increased by 6–8 degrees from today. This makes it particularly important to consider the choices made in forests from a long-term perspective. Indeed, the best way to counter climate change is to pursue forestry that supports forest vitality, choose appropriate tree species and safeguard forest biodiversity.