Metsä Group’s Regenerative Forestry Principles Improve Natural State of Forests

Finnish forest owners have welcomed the measures implementing Metsä Group’s regenerative forestry principles, the company said in a recent press release (5-7-24).

Of wood trades completed during Metsä Group’s campaign in February–April, approximately 40% were harvested in accordance with the Metsä Group Plus management model. In terms of cubic volume of wood trades, the share was over 50% during the campaign.

Metsä Group’s parent company Metsäliitto Cooperative is owned by more than 90,000 Finnish forest owners, who own approximately half of Finland’s private forests. The measures were carried out jointly with owners and significantly improved the natural state of forests.

The Metsä Group Plus forest management model pays increasingly close attention to forest biodiversity and forest nature in the implementation of forest work. The model includes measures that improve the state of forest nature and are more comprehensive than current established practices and certificate requirements. Under the model, more retention trees are left, and more high biodiversity stumps are made per hectare of forest during felling.

In valuable habitats and littoral forests, the model represents the highest level of requirements currently in use. The Metsä Group Plus model also enables the increased burning of retention trees to safeguard the living conditions of species that inhabit burned environments.