Regenerative forestry brings a considerable change to forest thinking: not only is the state of forest nature improved, but the improvement is also demonstrated with measurements.
“From now on, the impacts on the state of nature will be verified. Forest certificates are themselves necessary, describing the measures adopted in the forest, but they do not explain what impacts the measures have had,” says Timo Lehesvirta, Metsä Group’s leading nature expert.
In summary, measuring means counting the number of species and specimens in a specific area and recounting them after enough time has passed.
There are tens of thousands of forest species in Finland, so it is impossible to follow the development of them all. Lehesvirta explains that the main indicator species will be included in the calculations.
“Regenerative forestry sets the targets that we measure. To date, we have been minimising the negative impacts, but we now need to turn things around and create positive impacts.”
Metsä Group cooperates with researchers in the measurements. Information from the national forest inventories, produced in Finland for more than a century, is used in the work, as is the Red list of threatened species.
Thinking about biodiversity work from a wider perspective, it is important for companies in the field to cooperate. This will ensure that different parties do not devise incompatible indicators. The work has already begun. The Finnish Forest Industries Federation and the Finnish Sawmills Association have published a biodiversity roadmap, with which wood processing companies contribute to common goals to improve the state of forest nature.
Source: Metsä Group
