State-owned areas managed by Metsähallitus
In total, 12.6 million hectares of state-owned land and water areas are under Metsähallitus’ stewardship. This accounts for almost one third of Finland’s surface area.
The largest share of state-owned lands is located in Eastern and Northern Finland. Our areas include a wide range of forests, mires, shores and waters.
While slightly over one half of our areas are commercial forests, no forest management operations are carried out on low-productivity and non-productive lands.
Most of the properties and buildings on state-owned land are owned by Senate Properties.
Surface areas – one third of Finland
Metsähallitus manages a total of 12,602,000 hectares: 9,186,000 hectares of land and 3,416,000 hectares of water areas.
| LAND AREAS (31.12.2024) | HECTARES (%) |
|---|---|
| Total | 9 186 000 |
| Forest land in multiple-use forests* | 4 848 000 (53 %) |
| – of which forests in commercial use* | 3 474 000 (71,5 %) |
| – of which low-producticity land* | 702 000 (14,5 %) |
| – of which non-productive land* | 672 000 (14 %) |
| Statuatory protected areas | 1 867 000 (20 %) |
| Wilderness areas | 1 378 000 (15 %) |
| Areas reserved for conservation programmes | 379 000 (4 %) |
| Other areas of special value | 714 000 (8 %) |
* Productive forestry land is classified on the basis of Nordic growth categories of forestry land: on forest land, the average annual growth of the tree stock is at least 1 m3/ha; on low-productivity land, 0.1-1 m3/ha and on nonproductive land, less than 0.1 m3/ha.
| WATERS (31.12.2024) | HECTARES (%) |
|---|---|
| Total | 3 417 000 |
| Statuatory protected areas | 243 000 (7 %) |
| Public waters | 2 663 000 (78 %) |
| – of which in sea areas | 2 554 000 |
| – of which in inland water areas | 108 000 |
| Other water areas | 511 000 (15 %) |