Environment
We mitigate biodiversity loss in state-owned land and water areas by means of active measures aiming to maintain and increase biodiversity and to minimise negative impacts on the environment. Our Climate Programme promotes the transition to a carbon-neutral society by 2035 through increasing carbon sinks, carbon storage and clean energy production as well as by cutting our emissions. Programme also includes measures for preparing for changing conditions and adapting to climate change.
A certified environmental management system
ISO-standard
Metsähallitus has a certified environmental management system, ISO 14001, on the basis of which environmental goals are adopted annually.
The management of environmental issues at Metsähallitus is underpinned by an ISO 14001 certified environmental system.
The environmental team of Metsähallitus, which includes representatives from all business and Group units, together with the business units’ environmental teams prepare matters related to the environmental system for Metsähallitus’ Board of Directors, the Management Group and the business unit’s management groups. Metsähallitus’ environmental team is also responsible for managing, monitoring and developing the implementation of the environmental system. Metsähallitus Environmental Group is chaired by the Director of the Communications, Strategy and Responsibility Unit, who presents matters to the Management Group and the Board of Directors.
We safeguard biodiversity
We examine state-owned land areas as a whole in which nature reserves and the ecologically most important nature sites in multiple-use forests constitute a nationwide ecological network. In terms of species and landscape, the sites in the network are vital to the preservation of biodiversity in our country.
In 2020–2023, we will spend around EUR 46 million on active restoration and ecological management projects that increase biodiversity. In addition, Metsähallitus’ business units will invest more than EUR 50 million in biodiversity through the landscape ecological network and EUR 2 million in increasing the volume of decaying wood. Measures aimed at promoting biodiversity also have wider knock-on effects on society. For example, mitigating biodiversity loss has positive impacts on local economies as we also use outsourced services to carry out the measures.
Alongside our work for biodiversity, we implement Metsähallitus’ Climate Programme while making sustained efforts to mitigate both biodiversity loss and climate change.
We mitigate climate change and adapt to it
Climate change and adapting to it play an important part in Metsähallitus’ strategy as state-owned lands have a key role in climate change mitigation. Based on the latest National Forest Inventory (VMI12), state-owned forests account for almost one half of the carbon sink of Finnish forests, and the size of the sink represented by the trees on state-owned lands corresponded to more than one fifth of Finland’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
The main targets of our Climate Programme are to
- nurture and strengthen carbon sinks and stores
- investigate possibilities to produce renewable raw materials and provide opportunities to produce renewable energy to save and replace fossil raw materials and reduce emissions in society’s value chains
- to save and replace fossil raw materials and energy in Metsähallitus operations
- to safeguard the functionality of ecosystem services and utilise the opportunities they offer in terms of mitigating climate change and adapting to it.
