New forest management model for Metsä Group’s wood supply to boost the forest biodiversity
Metsä Group aims to make Finnish forests increasingly vibrant and diverse. To achieve this, the company launched its regenerative forestry principles in March 2023. The goal is to help Finnish forests become more diverse and vibrant year by year and always transfer them in better condition from one generation to the next. Metsä Group Plus, a new forest management model which will be introduced in June 2023, is one of the key practical measures for achieving this target. The model pays closer attention than ever to forest biodiversity and forest nature in the implementation of forest work.
What makes Metsä Group’s goal significant is that the company’s owner-members manage approximately half of Finland’s private forest assets. Metsä Group has long encouraged forest owners to adopt sustainable forestry, and in recent years, it has carried out numerous measures to improve ecological resilience. Currently, around 90 per cent of the wood purchased by Metsä Group comes from forests managed in accordance with international forest certificates. The Metsä Group Plus model is even more demanding than these certificates. Under Metsä Group Plus model, more retention trees and high biodiversity stumps are left per hectare of forest during felling. To accelerate the creation of decaying wood and to secure the living conditions of species that inhabit burned environments, more retention trees will be burned. As concerns valuable habitats and littoral forests, the model represents the highest level of requirements currently in use.
“Metsä Group Plus is a future forest management model. It paves the way for forestry that respects nature values and a sustainable intergenerational approach better than ever. We want forest assets to be in a better and more productive condition when they are transferred to the next forest owner generation. We will recommend actions that comply with the voluntary Metsä Group Plus model extensively to our forest owner-members, and I believe it will become a significant way of working,” says Juha Jumppanen, EVP, Metsä Forest.
Metsä Group pays its owner-members a hectare based bonus for Metsä Group Plus wood to offset the costs for additional measures.
The Metsä Group Plus forest management and the diversification of tree species in Finnish forests are key measures for strengthening the state of forest nature and for improving resilience to our rapidly changing climate.
Read more on our website.
METSÄ GROUP
For more information:
Juha Jumppanen, EVP, Metsä Forest, tel. +358 50 384 4808
Juho Rantala, SVP, Development, Metsä Forest, tel. +358 40 143 6347
Juha Laine, Senior Vice President, Communications, Metsä Group, tel. +358 10 465 4541
Metsä Group
www.metsagroup.com
Metsä Group is leading the way in advancing the bioeconomy. We invest in growth, bioproduct development and a fossil free future. The raw material for our products is renewable wood from sustainably managed northern forests. We focus on the growth sectors of the forest industry: wood supply and forest services, wood products, pulp, fresh fibre paperboards, as well as tissue and greaseproof papers.
Metsä Group’s annual sales amount to approximately EUR 7 billion, and we have around 9,500 employees in around 30 countries. Our international Group has its roots in the Finnish forests: our parent company is Metsäliitto Cooperative which is owned by over 90,000 forest owners.
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