Finland’s Carbon Sinks Shrinking Due to Increased Tree Harvesting

A report released on Wednesday (12-21-22) by the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (Luke) has confirmed that the land use sector in Finland has changed from a carbon sink into a source of emissions. The carbon sink of Finnish forests has more than halved as a result of intensifying felling and slowing growth, Luke says.

While felling has intensified since the 1990s, forests grew at a faster clip, sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to fuel their growth, until their growth began to slow down in 2014. Last year, the total drain from forest—that is, the amount of roundwood removed and left in forests as felling residue—was almost 92 million cubic meters, an increase of over 25% from a couple of decades ago.

The age structure of forests is expected to inhibit forest growth until the 2030s. A rebound to rates higher than today is not expected until the 2040s. Luke estimated, though, that the age structure of forests explains only a fifth of the decline in growth.