In March we warned that forestry giant Stora Enso's products may contain traces of old growth forests. Well now we know that they do, with fresh proof from Kainuu, Finland. This is a problem the company could easily solve, with stronger sustainability criteria, but does it want to?
At least Stora Enso admits they're involved and it's business-as-usual. Metsä Group and UPM failed to even disclose if they're involved or not.
Finnish governmental forestry enterprise Metsähallitus has begun logging of natural old-growth forest sites surveyed by an expert working group for Natural Forests in the region of Kainuu, eastern Finland. Logging on these sites has been practically frozen for several years.
On June 3-5, south of Kaupinvaara in Suomussalmi, a habitat for red-listed species was fragmented by logging. The site was known to contain a rich variety of red-listed old-growth forest moss and lichen species. The forest was also known to host regionally endangered species such as the Siberian Jay and the Three-toed woodpecker.
Red-listed swamp forest habitats were also marked for logging, and they were grossly trampled by the tracks of heavy forestry machinery.
One of Metsähallitus's largest wood buyers, Stora Enso, stated in 2017 that it would not receive wood from Metsähallitus from these disputed old-growth forests in Kainuu until they had been resolved in a dialogue process between environmental organizations and Metsähallitus.
They had not been resolved. Metsähallitus did not agree to change its final plans at all in the negotiations held before the logging, and the company did not take the views of the Finnish Nature Conservation Association and Greenpeace into account in any way.
The final logging plan was implemented immediately as a matter of urgency, even though the company was told that the logging areas contained red-listed species and swamp forests.
StoraEnso broke its promise. The company printed the promise in its sustainability annual report and boasted about it in meetings with its investors and customers. Now this policy has been violated. How does StoraEnso, as a responsible wood buyer, accept that the dialogue it requires is not dialogue at all, but a unilateral dictation, and above all, why has StoraEnso now apparently started buying wood from old, diverse and endangered forests that has been frozen for years? Products from habitats of red-listed species - brought to you by Stora Enso!
Matti Liimatainen
Forest Campaigner matti.liimatainen at greenpeace.org
P.S. The logging of the Kaupinvaara natural forest was carried out during the bird breeding season. The Three-toed woodpecker, an EU Directive species of old-growth forests, and the regionally endangered Siberian Jay were species observed in Kaupinvaara. Yet the regional director of Metsähallitus claimed in a YLE story that the logging and its implementation were "planned with exceptional care." Great job! The decision was made with exceptional care to destroy and weaken the habitats of endangered and old-growth forest species, even during the breeding season.
It remains to be seen if this logging operation will be followed by similar cases. There are currently tens of old-growth and other High Conservation Value Forest sites in the Finnish state forests where the Finnish environmental organisations are aware of logging plans.
In Kainuu-Northern Ostrobothnia region the areas currently under threat are Harsuvaara in Suomussalmi and Hoikanvaara in Taivalkoski. The closest pulp mills likely to be supplied from these sites are StoraEnso Oulu mill and Metsä Group Kemi mill.
