New forest management model for Metsä Group’s wood supply to boost the forest biodiversity
Metsä Group aims to make Finnish forests increasingly vibrant and diverse. To achieve this, the company launched its regenerative forestry principles in March 2023. The goal is to help Finnish forests become more diverse and vibrant year by year and always transfer them in better condition from one generation to the next. Metsä Group Plus, a new forest management model which will be introduced in June 2023, is one of the key practical measures for achieving this target. The model pays closer attention than ever to forest biodiversity and forest nature in the implementation of forest work. What makes Metsä Group’s goal significant is that the company’s owner-members manage approximately half of Finland’s private forest assets. Metsä Group has long encouraged forest owners to adopt sustainable forestry, and in recent years, it has carried out numerous measures to improve ecological resilience. Currently, around 90 per cent of the wood purchased by Metsä Group comes from forests managed in accordance with international forest certificates. The Metsä Group Plus model is even more demanding than these certificates. Under Metsä Group Plus model, more retention trees and high biodiversity stumps are left per hectare of forest during felling. To accelerate the creation of decaying wood and to secure the living conditions of species that inhabit burned environments, more retention trees will be burned. As concerns valuable habitats and littoral forests, the model represents the highest level of requirements currently in use.