The Future of Finnish Forest Resources and Forest Landscapes

PEITSA MIKOLA, Ph.D. (Helsinki)

Professor of Forest Biology, Department of Silviculture, University of Helsinki, Unioninkatu 40 B, Helsinki, Finland

ABSTRACT

Because of an increasing world demand for paper and other forest products, the Finnish wood-using industries are expanding rapidly. This has raised serious concern about the future o f forest resources. Clearing of land for agriculture has slightly decreased the forest area during recent decades. Today, however, the forest area is increasing, owing to peatland drainage and afforestation of surplus agricultural land. The growing stock of the forests has remained approxi- mately unchanged during all the fifty years covered by repeated national forest inventories. Due to the present expansion of industry, however, intensive silvicultural measures are required to balance the increasing drain from the forests. Calculations show that, with feasible methods, by the year 2000 the annual increment of the forests could be raised by over 50 per cent, and measures have been taken to finance such a programme. Intensive silviculture (artificial reforestation, drainage, fertilization, etc.) will also change the forest scenery. In general, however, the changes will be small, as domestic tree species are favoured and rough terrain, rocky ground, and the Finnish type of forest owner- ship, prevent the establishment of large uniform monocul- tures. The biggest change in the scenery will be caused by the large-scale drainage of peat-bogs for forestry.

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Apprehensions lest the timber resources of our forests should be exhausted date back several centuries. More than four hundred years ago Gustaf Vasa, the King of Sweden and Finland, worried about the supply of ship-building timber for his navy; he therefore declared all oak trees to be Crown property, and prohibited their felling. Unfortunately, however, the consequence was quite the opposite of what the King intended, for the peasants tore up oak seedlings from the forests to prevent regeneration of the species (Quercus robur) which, from their point of view, was worthless. Since the last century, concern in Finland about the continuing supply of timber has led to numerous efforts to estimate the forest resources of the country and to plan for their sufficiency.

In most industries, prognoses for more than five to ten years ahead are quite unreliable. Forestry, how- ever, is based on long-term planning. Seeding and planting in forestry rest on the assumption that after a whole rotation, i.e. nearly a hundred years, timber will still be needed and will find a market. The course of development of stands on various sites is so well known that we are able to give a fairly good forecast of the appearance of a stand, that is established today, as it will be after 10, 30, or 50 years. Thus, if we know the present composition and structure of the forests, it is possible to predict the situation, for instance, in the year 2000.

The Finnish forest resources, as well as the structure and condition of the forests, are known fairly well. The first complete inventory of the forest resources of Finland--in fact the first of its kind in the world--was conducted in the early 1920s (Ilvessalo, 1927), and the second in the late 1930s (Ilvessalo, 1942); the forests were surveyed again for the third, fourth, and fifth times in the 1950s and 1960s (Ilvessalo, 1956; Forest Research Institute, 1967, 1968, 1970; Tiihonen, 1968). Thus, accurate records are available of the development of the forests during 50 years and this, together with statistics on industrial development, provides a firm foundation for prognoses of the future.

FOREST RESOURCES

Forest Area The changes of forest resources can be reviewed in

two different ways, namely on the basis of the wooded area or of the actual volume of standing timber.

The Finnish woodland area has decreased somewhat more in the last 50 years than was involved in the ca 10 per cent loss of territory incurred in World War II. Thus in the early 1920s, the forests covered 73.5 per cent of the land area of Finland, whereas the corre- sponding percentage today is 71. Clearing for agri- culture has been the main reason for the decrease,

161

Biological Conservation, Vol. 4, No. 3 April 1972--~ Applied Science Publishers Ltd, England--Printed in Great Britain

162 Biological Conservation

but forest land has also been taken for building sites, roads, power lines, etc. As a whole, however, the decrease in the forest area has been insignificant.

In all probability the decrease in the forest area will not continue further; on the contrary, a slight increase is to be expected. Forest land will still be used for building sites, roads, and similar purposes, but clearing for new agricultural land has come to an end. In Finland, according to agricultural experts, there is a surplus of about half a million hectares of tilled land, the cultivation of which will gradually have to be abandoned as it is not needed; already at the present time some 150,000 hectares are lying fallow, and the desired reduction is from 2.5 to 2.0 million hectares under cultivation. This surplus agricultural land will either be planted with trees or become wooded by natural processes, so that the forest area will be increasing. However, a more important step towards increasing the forest area will be the drainage of swamps. At the present time some 300,000 hectares are drained annually. This activity, it is true, is mainly concentrated on wooded peatlands, which already are classified as forests, but to some extent treeless bogs are also being drained and afforested. Thus, as far as forest area is concerned, there is no reason for concern.

Timber Resources The development of Firmish timber resources,

according to the national forest inventories, is pre- sented in Table I.

In the country as a whole, the timber resources have remained approximately unchanged during the 50 years covered by regular forest inventories. Temporary fluc- tuations have taken place, of course. Particularly in the war years of 1939-45, the wood-using industries were slack and, consequently, the increment of forests exceeded removal, resulting in an increase in the standing stock. Likewise, growth and removal have not always been and will not be balanced locally. In some areas timber resources have increased and in others decreased. The annual increment, however, is not always a correct measure of an allowable cut. I f

TABLE I

The Standing Timber of Finnish Forests, in Millions of Cubic Metres (Including Bark)

1923" 1937" 1952 1962 1969

Southern Finland 898 887 980 957 995 Northern Finland 492 483 513 453 453

Whole country 1390 1 3 7 0 1493 1410 1448

* Calculated for the present territory of Finland.

TABLE II

The Annual Increment of the Finnish Forests (in Millions of Cubic Metres, Without Bark) According to Five

National Forest Inventories

1923" 1937" 1952 1962 1969

Southern Finland 32.9 32.1 35.1 33-5 37.8 Northern Finland 8-8 9"4 10.9 9.3 9"8

Whole country 41.7 41.5 46.0 42.8 47.6

* Calculated for the present territory of Finland.

the majority of forests are young, for instance, the allowable cut is less than the increment and, accord- ingly, the timber volume should increase; conversely, if the bulk of the forests are over-mature, growth is negligible and even rational removal may exceed growth by several multiples. A decision on whether or not over-exploitation has taken place cannot be based on growth alone but requires a cutting budget--in which the age relations, silvicultural conditions, and other aspects, of the forests are taken into consideration.

In recent years concern about the future of the Finnish forest resources has been greater than ever before. The capacity of the Finnish wood-using industries has grown tremendously, and there is a corresponding increase in the demand for industrial raw timber. Between 1950 and 1969 the annual use of raw timber by industry more than doubled, i.e. from 15 million m 3 to 33 million m 3 on the basis of solid measure without bark (Forest Research Institute, 1968). This great expansion was possible for several reasons. The export of raw timber, which in the early 1950s was about 5 million m 3 annually, has almost ceased, and today import of raw timber exceeds export; the annual use of wood for fuel has decreased from 15 million to 9 million m3; the waste-wood of sawmills is used as raw material for pulp; less logging waste is left in the woods than before, etc. Nevertheless, the annual removal from the forests has grown in 20 years from 43 million m 3 to nearly 50 million m 3, which exceeds the annual increment (Table ID. Evident over-cutting has taken place in some parts of the country, whereas in other parts cutting has not even reached the estimated allowance (Fig. 1).

As was stated previously, the forest area of Finland will probably increase slightly in the future. Owing to relatively strict legislation, the maintenance of reasonable stocking of this area is also guaranteed. According to the Finnish Forest Law, regeneration cuttings are only allowed in mature stands at the end of a rotation, natural or artificial reforestation must be secured, and only silvicultural thinnings are per- missible in young and middle-aged stands. The

Norway

Sweden

Mikola : The Future of Finnish Forest Resources

I ' ' , {" ~ o o o ~ i • o o

, , ~- , } o ,~ o , o 1 9 7 0 o ~ ~ o

- ¢, ~, © o o o

c . . . . . . , 7, © o © ©

, © o , o © o ©

3 0 o o o o o o o

: ~ o o o

c , o o

o o { ,

o o o o

, o 1969o o

. . . . 1 9 6 7

163

Norway

U S S R

through technical advice, loans, subsidies, etc. This activity has been greatly intensified since 1964, when a detailed plan was prepared to finance the forest improvement programme (Forest Financing Com- mittee, 1964, 1966, 1969).

These measures have already resulted in an increase in the annual growth, at least in the southern half of Finland (Table II). Future development depends on the intensity of silviculture, as is shown in Table III.

TABLE Ill

The Projected Development o f Finnish Forest Resources from 1969 to 2000, According to Four Alternatives

(Ervasti et al., 1970)

Standing timber Annual growth

millions of m 3, without bark

Situation in 1969 1207 47.6 Situation in 2000

Alternative I 1243 71"5 Alternative I1 1252 76.4 Alternative III 1362 96.5 Alternative IV 1419 105.6

USSR

I ......... 1 - - _ , o © o o

OBvious S l i g h t U n d a r - c u t t i ~ g ~&l&nce Over-cutting

Fig. 1. Map of present-day Finland showing areas of over-cutting and accumulation of growing stock during the 1950s and 1960s. Figures indicate the year of the last

inventory.

observance of the law is well enforced. Thus, forests as closed plant communities will remain. The amount of timber which the forests can supply annually to the wood-using industries on a sustained-yield basis depends, however, on the intensity of forest manage- ment.

As in recent years annual removal has exceeded annual growth, and at the same time the capacity of the wood-using industries is still growing, the situation calls for great efforts to increase the productivity of the forests. This can be realized chiefly by improved silviculture, drainage of waterlogged peatlands, forest fertilization, tree breeding, and control of pests. The official policy of the Government towards the forests has for several decades been to promote these measures

In this Table, alternative I implies the continuation of silviculture at its present intensity, and alternative IV has been calculated on the assumption that all available means are used, without regard to economy. Alternative II is both feasible and economically profitable, while alternative HI, though reasonable and economically profitable, presents technical difficulties of implementation.

These calculations show that, with wise forest management and intensive silviculture, the timber demands of the present industry can be satisfied. Regionally, however, difficulties may arise. Thus, to use the mills of northern Finland to full capacity it may be necessary to bring raw material from the southern parts of the country or from abroad. In the near future, possibilities of increasing the capacity of the wood-using industries in Finland are very small.

FOREST SCENERY

A rough model of the Finnish forests in the year 2000, for instance, can be constructed on the assump- tions that the present young and middle-aged stands will then be some 28 years older than they are today, and that stands now approaching maturity will have been felled, regenerated, and replaced by new growth.

Possible changes of the tree species composition cart be predicted on the basis of past development, which is known fairly well from the national forest

164

inventories. According to these inventories, consider- able changes in the tree species composition and age relations have taken place in the past 50 years. These changes have been different in southern and northern Finland.

A rapid expansion of spruce has been the most notable change in southern Finland, where the per- centages of pine and broad-leafed trees have decreased (Fig. 2). Probably the expansion of spruce has been

PINE x - - SPRUCE o - - - BROAD-LEAFED TREES

% SOUTH FINLAND NORTH FINLAND

6 0 '

50,

/,0

30

20-

10"

Fig. 2.

J x

• , J

YEAR YEAR

Graphs showing volume percentages of different tree species in south and north Finland.

in progress since the last century, although no exact data are available for prior to 1922. There are two main reasons for the increase of spruce, namely, (a) the abandonment of shifting cultivation around the turn of the century, and (b) control of forest fires.

The almost complete elimination of fire has prob- ably been the greatest change caused by modern Man in the ecology of the Finnish forests. Although the number of fires has actually increased owing to human activity, effective fighting of them has reduced their total area to a small fraction of the immense burns of past centuries.

There has been yet a third factor promoting the expansion of spruce, namely the selective logging system, which was widely practised until the 1930s. Because in the early days only saw-logs had a market, the biggest and best trees were removed and all the smaller timber was left. Such a selective system strongly favoured the regeneration of spruce, whereas the less tolerent pine and birch, which formerly had regenerated after fires, had to recede. It was only the advent of a large-scale pulp industry that created a market for timber of smaller size, thus making possible

Biological Conservation

silvicultural thinnings and radical reproduction cuttings.

The almost complete abandonment of forest grazing has also markedly affected the Finnish forest scenery. As late as in the 1930s about half of all the farm forests, i.e. more than 7.5 million hectares, was used as pastures, and the effect of grazing was clearly visible in the forests around farms and villages. Today the practice of forest grazing has almost disappeared, and at the same time the distinctive features of forest pastures are vanishing from the scenery. The only exception is reindeer grazing in northernmost Finland. This continues to a large extent, and its influence is most clearly visible on the ground vegeta- tion of dry upland forests.

In northern Finland the replacement of over- mature forests with a new generation has been the most evident change in recent decades. In the 1920s, 36 per cent of the forests of northern Finland were more than 160 years old, whereas by the 1960s this percentage had fallen to 24. Correspondingly, the percentage of seedling stands (aged 1-20 years) rose from 2 to 9 per cent. In southern Finland, on the contrary, the average age of the forests increased slightly; thus, from the 1920s to the 1960s, the areal percentage of young forests (1-40 years) decreased from 30 to 25.5 and that of mature forest (more than 80 years old) increased from 14.5 to 25.

Probably the expansion of spruce will not continue further in southern Finland. Spruce is already the dominant species on all the sites that are suitable for it, and silviculture endeavours to prevent its invasion of sites which are more suitable for pine or birch. Thus, no considerable changes of the present tree species relations are to be expected in southern Finland. In the north, a reduction of the area of spruce forests is predicted, and the alteration of age-class relations will also continue. About 40 per cent of the spruce forests of northern Finland are still over-mature, i.e. more than 160 years old, and forestry aims at their regeneration and, to some extent, replacement by pine. Accordingly, the age-class structure will change still more in favour of young generations.

In recent decades Finnish silviculture has increas- ingly favoured seeding and planting instead of natural regeneration. The effect of this trend on forest scenery has often been questioned, and the fear has been expressed that the forests would become more monotonous, i.e. the variety of natural forests would be replaced by large uniform monocultures. However, such a fear is greatly exaggerated. Just for demonstra- tion there are some pure plantations of conifers, usually established on former agricultural land, in which the trees stand in straight rows at fixed intervals; but the majority of our present plantations do not

Mikola: The Future of Finnish Forest Resources 165

differ appreciably from natural second-growth forests. In fact, even trained biologists often cannot distin- guish our plantations from natural stands. Domestic species are used almost exclusively for reforestation, and exotics are only exceptionally planted. In most cases rough terrain and rocky ground prevent planting in straight lines and with equal spacing, and a sufficient admixture of broad-leafed trees usually comes naturally to coniferous plantations. The Finnish type of forest ownership also effectively prevents exaggerated mono- tony. More than 60 per cent of the forests belong to private farmers, and the average size of a farm woodlot is relatively small (35 hectares). As sustained-yield management is aimed at on every farm, the area of individual clear-cutting with subsequent monoculture will only in exceptional cases exceed a few hectares. Furthermore, present Finnish silviculture strongly favours mixed forests and broad-leafed tree species.

Artificial or natural afforestation of abandoned fields may locally affect the scenery, but as a whole the effect is negligible. The 0.5 million hectares of cultivated land which may be abandoned by the year 2000 corresponds to only about 2.5 per cent of our present forested area. If these fields are planted, birch is today the favourite species. In natural succession, the first phase will commonly be an alder (Alnus incana) and willow thicket, or sometimes a mixed birch etc. stand in dry places--in both cases later invaded by spruce.

Drainage of wetlands is undoubtedly causing the greatest change in the Finnish forest scenery. After drainage, both the tree stand and the ground vegetation approach those of upland forests, and this trend, of course, greatly decreases the variety of the forests. Peat-bogs will certainly not disappear completely from the Finnish scenery, but their area will be, and already has been, greatly reduced. The light-coloured birch usually forms the first tree generation on drained swamps, but in normal succession it is followed by spruce. In southern Finland there are large areas where all peatlands have already been drained for

forest growth, and this activity is continuing with accelerating speed. Preservation of representative peatland areas, particularly where they have great scenic value, is the most urgent task in the conserva- tion of Finnish forest landscapes.

References

ERVASTI, S., HEIKINHEIMO, L., KUUSELA, K. & M~,KINEN, V. O. (1970). Forestry and forest industry production alternatives in Finland, 1970-2015. Folia Forestalia, 88, pp. 1-65, illustr.

FOREST FINANCING COMMITTEE (1964, 1966, 1969). [Forest Financing Programmes I, H and IlL--in Finnish, with Swedish summaries, and additional English ones in II and III.] Forestry Information Service, Helsinki: I of 32 pp., II of 52 pp., III of 64 pp., all illustr.

FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE (1967). Forest statistics of Finland. I: Forest resources. Folia Forestalia, 32, pp. 1-67.

FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE (1968). Forest statistics of Finland 1950-67. Folia Forestalia, 47, pp. 1-93.

FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE (1970). Yearbook of forest statistics 1969. Folia Forestalia, 96, pp. 1-142.

ILVESSALO, Y. (1927). The forests of Finland. Results of the general survey of the forests of the country carried out during the years 1921-1924. Comm. Inst. Forest. Fenn., 11, pp. ix + 421 (321-95 English summary, 395-421 tables, figs and maps in English and Finnish) + Tables, pp. 1-192.

|LVESSALO, V. (1942). The forest resources and the con- dition of the forests of Finland. The second national forest survey. Comm. Inst. Forest. Fenn., 30, pp. vii

+ 446, illustr.

ILVESSALO, Y. (1956). The forests of Finland from 1921- 24 to 1951-53. A survey based on three national forest inventories. Comm. Inst. Forest. Fenn., 47(1), pp. 1-87 (83-87 English summary), illustr.

TnHONEN, P. (1968). Fourth national forest inventory in Finland. 4. Forest resources in Finland in 1960-63. Comm. Inst. Forest. Fenn., 66(3), pp. 1-30.

Le WWF demande la Creation de 100 Parcs Nationaux

Lors de son 26me Congr6s International, qui s'est tenu ~ Londres, le Fonds mondial pour la Nature 'World Wildlife Fund' (WWF) a adopt6 une r6solution recommandant la cr6ation, entre tous les pays du monde, de cent nouveaux Parcs Nationaux corre- spondant aux crit6res de la Liste des Nations Unies (cette liste comprend actuellement 1200 Parcs

Nationaux et r6serves 6quivalentes). Cela permettrait de c616brer dignement le centenaire du premier parc national du monde, celui de Yellowstone 6tabli en 1872 aux Etats-Unis.

WORLD WILDLIFE FUND, 1 10 Morges, Suisse.