Forest engineer Matti Jäppilä in his family-owned forest on October 31, 2022 in Askola, Finland (AFP/Alessandro RAMPAZZO)
Faced with a new clearing he has just cleared, Matti Jäppilä points to the many growth rings on a huge stump of a tree almost three centuries old.
In Finland, 75% covered by forest, many residents like him are worried about a new European biodiversity project aimed at restoring nature, which they say will render the important logging sector “completely ruinous”. .
“I started cutting systematically on these plots, to get ahead,” the 52-year-old forest engineer told AFP.
Near Askola in southern Finland, the mighty sound of a brushcutter echoes through the thick boreal forest of birch and spruce, where the Finnish woodcutter is preparing another big cut for December.
Before the EU, he says, stops him from being able to do so, “it’s better to cut the old pines now than wait.”
Forest engineer Matti Jäppilä shows the growth rings of a recently cut tree, in his forest in Askola, on October 31, 2022 in Finland (AFP/Alessandro RAMPAZZO)
If a large part of his forest, family property for 300 years, were to become a protected area, passing it on to his children would become “impossible”, believes the silvicultural operator.
“It’s very worrying,” said the Finn.
As part of its biodiversity strategy, the European Commission proposed in June a legislative project for the “restoration of nature”.
– Tensions in the government –
This aims to ensure that 20% of natural areas such as forests or marshes have returned by 2030 to the state in which they were in the 1950s.
Forest engineer Matti Jäppilä works in his family-owned forest on October 31, 2022 in Askola, Finland (AFP/Alessandro RAMPAZZO)
All forests, whether natural or cultivated for forestry, and not only in protected natural areas, are concerned.
Apart from the opprobrium of Finland’s influential forestry sector, the project has sparked tensions within Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s coalition government.
The Greens, in favor of the European text, found themselves in conflict with the Center party, traditional support for the forestry and agricultural sector.
After long palavers, the five ruling parties finally agreed on a critical line, Ms. Marin judging the European plan on Wednesday “not acceptable without substantial changes”.
The opposition, which criticizes the government for having let the Commission move forward, has tabled a motion of censure. This failed on Friday, with 103 votes in support of the government and 73 against it in a vote of confidence.
“This regulation proposed by the Commission is exceptionally unfair for Finland,” complains Saara-Sofia Sirén, an MP from the right-wing National Coalition party.
According to her, the return to nature would thus cost 190 million euros per year to the first European economy, Germany, “against nearly a billion for Finland”.
In 2020, Finnish forestry sector exports accounted for €10.4 billion, or 18% of the Nordic country’s total.
Another problem with the European project according to Finland: the Commission has drawn up its strategy without consulting the States, while forest management is a national competence.
Trunks of cut trees in the forest of Askola, October 31, 2022 in Finland (AFP / Alessandro RAMPAZZO)
It is “important” that forest policy remains decided “at the national level”, pleads Ms. Sirén.
Finland is not alone in cringing: in July 2021, ten European capitals, including Helsinki but also Berlin and Vienna, had expressed their “deep concern” about European initiatives concerning forests.
– Forests in danger –
France also expressed its hostility, as did Sweden, which intends to put the subject back on the table during its next EU presidency, in the first half of 2023.
Aerial view of a deforested part of the Askola forest on October 31, 2022 in Finland (AFP / Alessandro RAMPAZZO)
But for Jaana Bäck, professor of forest sciences at the University of Helsinki, there is “no doubt that these measures are necessary to curb the decline of nature and the destruction of biodiversity”.
“It won’t happen without active intervention,” she told AFP.
After decades of advocating for individual initiatives, the EU finds that the level of protection is “far from sufficient”.
“Forests are protected in Finland, but not enough. For example, we have very little protection of old-growth forests,” she points out.
Finland’s forest carbon sink is also under threat.
In May, Statistics Finland estimated that land use – mainly agriculture and forestry – had become a net source of emissions for the first time in the country, due to declining carbon stocks in forests.
© 2022 AFP
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