Regional forest program

By project NACAO

Published on 10 August 2023

Finland

Länsi-Suomi

About this good practice

Regional Forest Programme is a development plan for the entire forestry sector within the region. The programme harmonises the requirements of economic, social, and ecological sustainability. The objectives of the regional forest programs arise from the regions' own development needs and the objectives of the national forest strategy. The general objectives of the forest programme Forest management and use is diverse, sustainable, and highlighting the different values of the forest owners. Simultaneously, the sustainable use of forests should be profitable, and sector should have public acceptance. Also, forests and the management of them are a part of solution for climate change mitigation.

In Finland regional forest programmes prepared for 14 forest council areas. The process of creating the regional forest programme as is coordinated through the regional organization of Finnish Forest Center. The work is financed through Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland.

The objectives of the provincial forest programmes arise from the regions' own development needs and the objectives of the national forest strategy. Regional forest plan includes concrete actions for 6 development goals. Actions are implemented by various organizations different funding mechanisms, local, national and EU level. Regional forest council supervises the implementation of the program.

Resources needed

Coordination the Regional Forest Programme (RFP) requires 4 person months annually. RFP is implemented through regional R&D projects. In Central Finland currently 4 research projects with budget of 1 M€ are in operational phase. The projects are funded from national, regional and EU sources.

Evidence of success

The RFP crates a comprehensive picture on regions forests through a multidisciplinary approach. Regional forest councils support Finnish Forest Centre in implementation of the program. The outcome of the implementation of the RFP’s is reported to the regional forest council in 4 council meetings annually. The key performance indicators include:

-Number of research projects in execution
-Number of activation campaigns
-Volume of dead wood in forests
-Area of young seedlings in active management

Potential for learning or transfer

Central Finland’s RFP has six main goals: 1) Growing and vigorous forests, 2) Increased biodiversity and water protection, 3) Climate-sustainable forests, 4) Infra supporting versatile use of forests, 5) RDI in wood-based products, 6) Nature-based possibilities from forests. Through these we regionally combine different forest use objectives. Special attention is paid through continuous-cover silviculture to peatland forests which have suffered from the effects of forest management in previous decades and has potential to be biodiversity supporting areas in the future. At the same time resilience of forests to a changing environment due to climate change, is strengthened via guidance to good practices in silviculture. Intensive forestry means also, that we need to put our focus more on protection of the biodiversity. Forests in Central Finland can also offer new possibilities for the tourism and non-wood products and wellbeing sector can offer new possibilities in rural areas.