finland

Logging down by 8%

Article by Philipp Matzku (adapted for timber-online.com; translated by Eva Guzely) | 14.02.2020 - 08:50

Last year, 63.1 million m³ (88%) of overall Finnish logging were saw logs and pulp wood. 0.3 million m³ of this volume are for private use by forests owners, while the rest was harvested for the Finnish timber industry and exports.

The remaining 8.6 million m³ are industrial wood, such as firewood for private households and wood chips for commercial biomass and combined heat and power stations. Additionally, 2.2 million m³ of wood waste and tree stumps, which accumulated during harvest, were used for burning and are not part of logging statistics.

The Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) estimated that the sustainable growing stock in Finland is on average 80.5 million m³ a year for the years of 2016 to 2025. According to preliminary data, 89% of this potential volume were logged in 2019. From 2016 to 2019, logging amounted to 91% of growing stock. On the basis of the national forest inventory, the growing stock of standing timber rose to 108 million m³, which is an increase of 21 million m³.

These preliminary data were collected and published by the Natural Resources Insititue Finland (Luke).