HS Analysis | Suddenly, an unknown fell is front page news – This is how the dispute between activists and Metsähallitus flared up

“Will it stop? natural destruction by cutting down the forest?” ask Metsälikuken demonstrators on their signs at Aalistunturi in Kolar, Western Lapland.

The question brings to the fore a broader reflection on the use of Finland’s forests than the logging controversy. The subject will certainly come up for discussion during the spring in government negotiations and when weighing, among other things, the nature canopy strategy and the means of forest nature restoration.

In the area around Aalistunturi, there is a dispute about the logging started by Metsähallitus in the area where a national park has been proposed. Opposite are traditional wood production and concern about the impoverishment of nature.

Metsähallitus’ forestry company has started felling south of Aalistunturi, covering a total of about 400 hectares. The company has promised to leave valuable natural sites alone.

Forestry activists have been camped in the area for the third week already. They demanded Metsähallitut to give up logging and the protection of Aalistunturi.

Logging in the state-owned forest, Metsähallitus Metsätalous oy. It is a subsidiary of Metsähallitus, which manages the state’s economic forests and carries out their felling.

Metsäliike consists of the active members of Luonto-Liitto’s forest group and Greenpeace and Elokapina’s Metsäkapina, as well as individuals. Swedish forest activists are also participating in the demonstration at Aalistunturi.

There is no direct communication between the parties.

Metsähallitus sticks to legal logging, which is based on the logging plan made in 2021, before the official national park presentation.

Activists defend nature and defy compensation demands of tens of thousands of euros, even though protesters have been transported to the tube on a couple of occasions.

Metsähallitus according to Aalistunturi, forestry and thinning-oriented forest processing is carried out in an area with a strong forestry history.

“The area was plowed, drained and cultivated in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Now there is a very growing tree that needs thinning,” says the regional director of Metsähallitus Metsätalous oy. Samuli Myllymäki.

Myllymäki assures that natural diversity is taken into account:

“Aalistunturi itself is protected, and there is no hunting there. We have received feedback on the felling plan and reacted to it as necessary. The felling area has been reduced from the original and the end fellings have been completely removed.”

In dispute however, it is not about what has always been done but what can be done differently. Most of Finland’s national parks have areas that consist of former commercial forests. They have been restored in many places.

Logging fragments the area and erodes the basis of the national park presentation, even though they do not target natural forests or already protected areas.

“Even though the area is marked on maps as an ordinary economic forest, it has not been felled for a long time and has developed into a natural state,” says the author of the national park presentation, a member of the board of the Muonio and Kolar nature association of the Finnish Nature Conservation Association Markus Asikainen.

“The felling areas include clear seeded forests. But now we’re also hunting targets that are important in terms of biodiversity, such as the fern scorpion,” says Asikainen.

According to Asikainen, an area with many species of old forests and uncut raven sites is also falling under the felling.

Initiative Aalistunturi National Park was created in April 2021. Although it was officially created after the felling plan of Metsähallitus, the presentation is based on a long planning process and field work that has been done for more than ten years.

The goal is to create an ecological haven in Western Lapland that would include the fell and the valley-like catchment area of ​​Laukkujoki with its top streams and lake basins

On top of the fell is a nature reserve of about a thousand hectares, which would form the core of the proposed national park. Expanding the protected area would make it easier for species to move further north as the climate warms and thus reduce the loss of nature and at the same time save the forests’ important carbon sinks.

The delimitation of the proposal would include the expansion of the nature reserve to an area of ​​approximately 10,000 hectares in the areas of Kolar and Pello municipalities. The area is owned by the state.

“The national park would bring a corridor to the northern wilderness and a chain of protected areas along which the species would be able to pass,” says Asikainen.

Logging dispute is above all symbolic.

The outcome of an acute crisis is predictable: Logging continues, and protesters are evicted from the logging area, even at a distance, as has already happened. The consequences will be dealt with later in court.

The symbolic meaning is more far-reaching. It raises a deep concern about the future of Finnish nature and how forests are treated in general.

The concern is made visible by the protesters who camp in Lapland’s winter.

In the same way, the dispute highlights the huge logging pressure, which does not leave much cover in the forests of Northern Finland.

Industrial needs wood, and Metsähallitus Metsätalous oy’s task is to produce and sell it. Metsähallitus’ share of wood used in industry is 8–10 percent in the whole of Finland, as much as 30–40 percent in northern Finland.

In addition, Metsähallitus’ business operations have a financial goal, which it must generate revenue for the state. The annual revenue targets determined by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry set the framework for operations.

The profit target has been reduced in recent years. While in 2019 Metsähallitus generated 138.9 million euros in revenue for the state, in 2020 the amount was 120 million euros.

The revenue target for 2021 was 99.2 million euros. According to the financial statements, there were no difficulties in fulfilling it: “The profitability of the businesses has remained good, and the income generated for the owner has exceeded the target in 2021.”

The logging level of the state’s lands has remained more or less unchanged in recent years, at around six million cubic meters. According to Metsähallitus Myllymäki, logging has remained at a sustainable level, as the company’s natural resource plans would allow more extensive logging.

“The felling level enabled by the natural resource plans in Metsähallitus’ multi-use forests is 6.5 million cubic meters per year. The growth of the stand is more than 13 million cubic meters per year, but we cut down less than half of this amount every year,” says Myllymäki.

In addition to wood production, Metsähallitus has set goals for biodiversity and species protection, as well as increasing forest carbon sinks and stores.

Natural from the point of view, the situation is not ideal. One in nine of Finland’s plant and animal species and almost half of the habitat types are classified as endangered.

In terms of diversity, the dominant habitat is forests, as they have the largest number of species. The majority of endangered species, more than 30 percent, live primarily in forests.

A draft of the national diversity strategy was recently completed. It proposes a significant increase in forest protection.

Read more: The new nature protection strategy would increase the protection of forests almost one and a half times

Finland is also committed to stopping the impoverishment of nature by 2030 and to the UN goal of protecting 30 percent of the surface area of ​​land and sea areas.

Aalistunturi The protesters of Metsälikuken want to remind that Finland must also participate in the fight against nature loss.

“If we really want to stop the loss of nature in Finland, large entities are needed for protection. Fragmented protection is no longer enough”, forest activist Ida Korhonen says.

His love for nature makes him ski and walk for kilometers to the fells and camp in Lapland in the middle of winter.

“We must be proud of Finland’s nature, defend it and take care of diversity. It’s uncomfortable to wake up and notice that nature loss is happening here and not just somewhere else,” says Korhonen.

In the end, it’s about the forest relationship and its change. Forests are associated with more and more diverse features. Forests are more than just wood.