Forest advice in Finland shifts from directives to dialogue

Finland’s forest advice is changing as future forest owner Maria Takala-Roszczenko considers whose guidance to follow, Yle reports. Researchers say forest owners need advice that gives greater weight to nature and the environment alongside timber production.

Takala-Roszczenko, from Joensuu, will soon inherit her family’s forests in the municipality of Rääkkylä in North Karelia. She is now considering what she wants from the forests and which advice she should trust.

“I don’t want to accept advice with blinkers on. I want to hear several opinions,” she says.

She wants her decisions to be based on up-to-date research, including research on biodiversity. She is also interested in carrying out forest work herself and already has experience with tasks such as planting trees.

Forest owners receive different kinds of advice

Many forest owners seek guidance from professionals, but the advice can vary depending on whom they ask. Experts work in local forest management associations, the forest industry and as independent professionals, with different priorities across the sector.

Tuomo Takala, a researcher and university lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland, says forest advice has traditionally focused on timber production.

“Alongside current forest advice, we need services with a much stronger focus on nature and the environment,” he says.

Takala leads a project involving the University of Eastern Finland, Häme University of Applied Sciences and Lapland University of Applied Sciences. The project is seeking practical ways to make forest planning more sustainable from a nature perspective.

Researchers are examining, among other things, how forestry professionals view forests through economic or ecological lenses, and how they can describe forests from different perspectives.

Half rely heavily on professionals

Forestry professionals play a key role in how privately owned forests are used. According to a survey cited by Takala, half of Finnish forest owners rely heavily on professionals.

“In practice, they carry out the plan proposed by the adviser in their forest,” he says.

Takala-Roszczenko expects to need professional advice and practical help with forest management in the future.

“I’m not the same kind of old hand as my father, who has done almost everything himself,” she says.

Advisers are listening more closely

Joel Martikainen, who provides practical advice through the North Karelia Forest Management Association, says the unquestioned authority once held by forest professionals is changing.

In the past, a forest adviser might have dictated which parts of a forest should be logged. Now, advice begins with a discussion of the owner’s values: what they think about their forest and what matters to them.

“I have actually been surprised by how large a part of the work is listening to the forest owner’s thoughts,” Martikainen says.

According to Martikainen, an owner’s personal relationship with the forest influences their views on how it should be used. People who live near or grew up near their forests often have a strong emotional connection to them.

“It may be important that a particular landscape remains, even if the owner wants income from the forest. The financial value of the forest and its ecological values exist side by side,” he says.

Martikainen estimates that owners who live near their forests are often more cautious about forestry measures than absentee owners. An increasing number of forest owners live far from their holdings and may never have seen them. In such cases, the relationship with the forest is more straightforward.

Nature values are becoming more important

Takala-Roszczenko describes herself as a future forest owner who seeks a middle ground. She nevertheless has a strong emotional connection to the forests she will inherit.

“I love my home region, and the forests are part of my family’s story,” she says.

She believes ecological values are more important to her than they were to previous generations. At the same time, she wants to respect the work of earlier generations and keep the forests productive.

Takala says that nature is often taken into account in forestry only at the minimum level required by law and certification schemes.

“We should move away from minimum thinking,” he says.

Finland has about 600,000 private forest owners. Many descendants of the baby-boomer generation are expected to inherit forests in the coming years.