Visiting the forests of Inari

Author: Hannele Pokka, Professor of Practice (OTT)

Hannele Pokka

Voluntary forest certificates have long been in use in the forest sector. The most well-known of them are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification systems). PEFC and FSC are international forest certification systems that guarantee the origin of wood and forest products from responsibly managed forests, but the FSC has stricter requirements for biodiversity and conservation.

In Finland, the PEFC certificate is used by the majority of private forest owners and Metsähallitus (a state-owned land and water management enterprise). FSC forests cover approximately 2.5 million hectares, or about 12 per cent, of Finland's commercial forests. FSC monitors that certified companies comply with the FSC criteria. The organisation requires that the principle of FPIC (free, prior, informed, consent) is followed in forest felling that has an impact on the culture or traditional livelihoods of indigenous peoples.

A few days ago, I accompanied Subhra Bhattacharjee, Director General of the international organisation of the FSC, when she visited Inari to meet with Sámi reindeer herding cooperatives, representatives of Metsähallitus and the shareholders of the jointly owned forests of Inari and Utsjoki. In Northern Lapland, it has long been the case that forest companies have not bought wood from Northern Lapland. Felling in the old forests of the Sámi Homeland can cause unwanted reputational damage for companies. 

In Inari, there was a discussion about whether reindeer herders and owners of private forests who have a negative attitude towards deforestation could agree on where felling could take place. Would membership in the FSC help? 

Nanguniemi, Inari

The views were quite far apart. The reindeer herders considered that the forests of Northern Lapland have been intensively felled since the 1950s. The remaining state-owned old and natural forests should be protected. The shareholders of the jointly owned forest, on the other hand, said that their forests have been protected without a decision or compensation. Metsähallitus announced that it will not cut down forests if the reindeer herding cooperative opposes them. A representative of the Utsjoki jointly owned forest – the Utsjoki jointly owned forest is located in the municipality of Inari – said that the jointly owned forest had recently negotiated a small-scale felling by the local reindeer herding cooperative. The felling had been carried out in accordance with the consent and boundary conditions given by the reindeer herding cooperative.

We also visited Nanguniemi.  A luxury hotel is planned to be built at the tip of the peninsula, in the middle of a forest that is more than 300 years old.