Biodiversity is safeguarded in commercial forests

In addition to the protection programmes, the use of certain sections of commercial forests is restricted. They include shelterwood zones, habitats of special importance by virtue of the Forest Act, natural habitats protected by virtue of the Nature Conservation Act, recreation and hiking areas owned by municipalities or the state, areas set aside for protection by virtue of regional and general land use plans, and certain areas mentioned in the Natura 2000 programme.

The Forest Act defines habitats of special importance. The Act requires that the special features of these habitats must be safeguarded. The maintenance or use of these habitats is not prohibited, but generally they are completely excluded from forestry measures or they are treated with particular care. However, several points are not very clear, including the extent of buffer zones that should be left around such habitats.

Habitats of special importance include the immediate surroundings of small-scale waterways, such as springs, streams, wet hollows in the permanent beds of streams, and small pools, herb-rich and grassy hardwood-spruce swamps, ferny hardwood-spruce swamps, eutrophic paludal hardwood-spruce swamps, eutrophic fens located to the south of the Province of Lapland, fertile patches of herb-rich forest, patches of heathland forest in undrained wetlands, gorges and ravines, steep bluffs and the underlying forest, and sandy soils, exposed bedrock, boulder fields, wetlands with spare tree stands and flood meadows which are less productive than nutrient-poor heathland forests.

Finnish forest owners also apply many voluntary means to safeguard forest biodiversity. These include forest certification , several different quality and environmental management systems, regional forest programmes and the landscape-ecological planning in state forests. The direct cost of voluntary measures to forest owners are €80–100 million per year. The sum includes, for instance, the cost of voluntary retention of trees.

20. Preservation of typical characteristics of valuable habitats during felling.

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