Reader opinion In exceptional circumstances, the climate and diversity perspective may recede for a moment

Opinion|Reader’s opinion

Now Due to the restrictions on international trade that are being implemented in Finland, imported timber is being replaced by domestic logging. We are hearing whether we will have to exceed our sustainable logging opportunities because of this. The question is relevant. We survived the reconstruction contract and war reparations of recent wars by consciously felling our forests with great grasp and a lot. The task was not to the liking of its executors either.

After the wars, efforts were made to manage the forests with determination and skill. As a result, our forests have approximately double the wood supply compared to the 1940s. The period of exception now lived cannot even be compared to that time. Still, it can be said that the use of our own forests can once again take care of the basic conditions for our life and being.

Still in force in the national forest strategy has been defined as a logging target of 80 million cubic meters per year. Logging is not quite at this level. Even if we had to increase logging by a million cubic meters a year, it would not cut by more than a hundred million cubic meters per year. Best of all, this is your own local tree that is not out of the resources of any other nation. And yet, although the alignment may not be the best possible: new forests are acquired by planting seedlings, but human lives are not regained.

Jyri Seppälä wrote (HS Opinion 18.3.) that the increase in logging poses a serious challenge to the achievement of climate goals and work to safeguard forest biodiversity. This is absolutely true. In exceptional circumstances for the whole world, this aspect may also recede for a moment. Finland’s share of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions is small, so even a few years of heavy logging here will do little to destabilize the world’s climate work. Of course, Finland must take care of the global challenge for its own part, as is still being done. At the same time, those at the very second level can be challenged to work with their own weight – as soon as peace is restored to the world.

Antti Koskimäki

Parish Counselor, Loppi

Reader opinions are speeches written by HS readers, selected and delivered by HS’s editorial staff. You can leave a comment or read the principles of writing at www.hs.fi/kirjtamielipidekirjoitus/.