RELEASE: World Outraged by Finland's Continued Old Growth Logging
Supposedly "Green" Finland's unprotected intact old growth forest landscapes, including 300 year old trees in Northern Forest Lapland, continue to be destroyed to make throw-away paper products
By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org
(Seattle, WA) -- Finland's last unprotected intact old growth forest landscapes [search] continue to be destroyed by the Finnish government and timber industry. Trees more than 300 years old are being industrially destroyed by the government's logging body Metsähallitus, ending up in timber giant Stora Enso's pulp [search] wood piles. Less than 5% of Finnish forests have remained untouched by modern forestry.
Ecological Internet's Earth Action Network is supporting Finnish NGO demands that Northern Forest Lapland's natural treasures are fully protected. Some 1,630 people from 66 countries have sent 345,578 emails in a peaceful protest intended to put international pressure on the Finnish government and Stora Enso [1].
"There are too few large, connected and relatively intact terrestrial ecosystem habitats globally to sustain the Earth system," explains global forest protection expert Dr. Glen Barry. "Finland and the World's old-growth must be strictly protected and restored to sustain the Earth's biosphere and ecosystem processes including climate, water and biodiversity upon which all life depends."
Regarding Stora Enso's response to the protest, Finnish forest policy observer Olli Manninen notes "Stora Enso admits buying wood from old growth and virgin forests and is committed to doing so in the future. And Metsähallitus definitely has further plans to log these areas, some being already marked for logging. It is deeply troubling that Stora Enso claims wood from Forest Lapland's old-growth destruction fulfills the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) requirements."
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Finnish old-growth forest destruction today is totally unnecessary. Finland is a rich industrialized country with no economic need to log the remains of its old-growth forests. Low-productive old-growth boreal forests located hundreds of kilometres north from the Polar Circle are being logged systematically and indiscriminately, yet provide less that 0.1% of the industry's wood supply.
This is the latest protest in Ecological Internet's global campaign to protect all remaining ancient primary and old growth forests, and promote regeneration and restoration of secondary forests to late successional old-growth status. Increasing old forest cover globally is critical for achieving global ecological sustainability.
[1] TAKE ACTION:
Support Finnish NGOs in Their Fight for Lapland's Ancient Forests
DISCUSS RELEASE:
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Ecological Internet provides the world's largest and most used climate and environment portals at http://www.climateark.org/ and http://www.ecoearth.info/ . Dr. Glen Barry is a leading global spokesperson on behalf of environmental sustainability policy. He frequently conducts interviews on the latest climate, forest and water policy developments and can be reached at: glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org
Comments
you guys frigging rock!
Posted by: Anonymous | February 10, 2009 12:04 PM
I remember writing to them in 2005 about this and receiving their standard attempt at greenwash.
I don't think they'll stop until they've destroyed it all.
At least they're not clearing it for oil sands extraction and it might have a chance to grow back :(
Posted by: Adam Hardy | February 10, 2009 12:09 PM
Follow a message I received from Stora and my answer:
On Seg Fev 9 6:36 , 'Sustainability, Se'
Dear Stakeholder
In response to your e-mail, I would like to tell you about Stora Enso's position on old-growth forests and update you on Metsähallitus' loggings in Finnish Forest Lapland.
We are committed to protecting and restoring old-growth forests and have supported many multi-stakeholder processes to do so in Northern Finland since 1996. We do not buy wood from forests which have been defined as old-growth in a national stakeholder process, and this is clearly stated in our wood procurement principles.
Some Finnish environmental organisations have called for further protection in some areas where Metsähallitus has been logging. Metsähallitus has recognized these demands of the environmental organisations, and carried out further inventories in these areas last year. Some of these areas were reclassified as valuable old-growth in autumn 2008 and have been left out of commercial loggings. The other areas remain classified as normal commercial forests where loggings can be carried out.
Metsähallitus has no plans for further logging in the areas defined by the environmental organisations in Forest Lapland this winter.
Stora Enso's position is that we can receive wood from the areas as they meet FSC Controlled Wood requirements. Audits carried out by Stora Enso Wood Supply Finland in the logging areas confirm this.
Stora Enso is open for further dialogue with different stakeholders. We have recently discussed the matter with Greenpeace and Metsähallitus, and would like to continue this dialogue face to face, and preferably not through thousands of e-mails.
Yours sincerely
Jouko Karvinen
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Dear Mr. Jouko Karvinen,
I thank you very much for your prompt and clear reply and congratulate by its content.
However, let me call your attention to the following: BY DEFINITION it's not possible to "restore" an old-growth forest, we can't cut off one acre of an ancient forest and "compensate" with two or three acres of new-born pine trees. Unfortunately, dealling with conservation is not so easy....
And be assured, if people trust Stora activity you will not receive mails of this kind anymore.
Attentively,
JVSerrano
Posted by: JVSerrano | February 10, 2009 8:18 PM
Surely it would just be best to leave these old forests alone and concentrate on more artificial sustainable forestry. Deforestation of this kind has got to be the most harmful form, as these old boreal forest are massive CO2 sinks.
Posted by: jimbo | February 13, 2009 11:06 AM
An answer to the water shortage problem might be to REMOVE THE LIDS from all bottles, both plastic and glass before disposing of them. At least give the liquid a chance to escape by evaporation or maybe some insect will get in there or just dirt. there must be BILLIONS of gallons of water lost forever in landfills, etc even the little bit left on the inside of the bottle amounts to A LOT!!!
how much effect on the climate and global warning does this have????
Posted by: bill notestine | February 22, 2009 1:40 PM
HMMN just like GM, Climate Change etc then.
Sue
Posted by: Sue | February 24, 2009 2:42 PM
There is a need to establish World Parks all over the planet where humans cannot go unless they go in light footprint way, some call no piston heads allowed.
In Canada, that would be the Arctic, the Rockies and all coasts and rivers for a start..
If we could pull humans back into a reserve area of say 10% of the planet, it might have a chance.
rb
Posted by: rb | February 24, 2009 2:47 PM