“The Finnish understanding of forest management differs considerably from the one held in Central Europe, where management is more of a ‘manicure’, and in the worst case the forests resemble parks,” stresses Pekka Pesonen, Permanent Secretary of Finland's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Pekka Pesonen (Pekka Pesonen), the long-serving Secretary General of Copa Cogeca, the organisation representing Europe's farmers and agricultural cooperatives, has returned to Finland after 26 years of work in Brussels, and he wants to draw attention to the most distinctive features of Finnish forestry that set it apart from other European Union countries and regions.
Forests cover more than 75% of Finland's territory
“No other European country has such large forest areas and such a broad spectrum of habitats. The situation may be similar in Sweden and the Baltic states, but in the Alps, for example, the forests are different,” explains Mr Pesonen, who has held the post of Permanent Secretary at Finland's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry since last spring.
Yet the fact that Finland is Europe's most forest-rich country does not increase its ability to influence European Union forest policy.
“Even if Finland, Sweden, the Baltic states and Austria joined forces, they would not gain decisive influence in EU policy, and that is a problem. In environmental policy, for example, our votes are not enough to secure substantial changes to initiatives or to stop them,” Mr Pesonen points out. “Nordic views on forest management differ from those held across much of the rest of Europe. As a result, Brussels is used as a court of appeal in the same way that Moscow was used in the past. To gain greater influence, the appeal is now made at European Union level. Such activity is plain to see,” Mr Pesonen explains.
In Belgium you cannot ‘just like that’ walk into a forest
Speaking about the state of forests in Finland, Pekka Pesonen mentions the concept of everyman's rights as something “special” within the European Union.
“In Belgium you cannot simply walk into a forest. The forests are private property and entry is not permitted. When we moved to Belgium more than twenty years ago, we noticed a sign at the edge of a forest announcing that this forest would be accessible on a particular day at a particular time,” recalls Mr Pesonen, who recently returned to Finland after 26 years spent in Brussels. “In Finland, on the other hand, we recently came across a campaign by an organisation whose slogan proclaimed that Finland's forests are freely accessible every day,” he laughs.
In Finland, everyman's rights also mean that everyone has the right to enjoy nature regardless of who owns a given area. No special permission from the landowner is needed to enjoy and use nature in accordance with the rules. Nor does it cost anything.
"Spending time in the forest is a popular pastime in Finland: people pick berries and mushrooms, go hiking, ski, take part in orienteering competitions, train... and that is understandable. What forests mean to Finns should have been talked about far more, and far earlier. This is not about lobbying for any special interest. The vision and work of the Finnish Forest Association at European level should have been broadened at least 15-20 years ago,” stresses Pekka Pesonen. He was recently invited to join the advisory board of the Finnish Forest Academy for Decision-Makers.
The Finnish Forest Academy for Decision-Makers is a forum of courses and discussions intended for decision-makers and opinion leaders. Under the Academy's auspices, courses are also organised on European Union matters for influential figures.
The Finnish “collective mistake”
Mr Pesonen believes that in the 1990s the Finns made a mistake by not talking about or explaining forest issues at European Union level. Unfortunately, the consequences of that mistake are still visible. As is well known, Finland joined the European Union in 1995.
“I would say that we had a narrow outlook at the time — that is, at European level we did not want to talk about forests and the issues connected with them. It should have been reconsidered, but of course the mistake is clear to everyone now, unfortunately only after the fact. Back then (in the 1990s) such an approach, mistaken though it was, seemed the best way to move things forward, whereas now the consequences of what happened are becoming quite clearly visible and are having a negative effect on the situation as a whole. In this connection, Pekka Pesonen points to recent European Union legislation in the fields of climate, the environment and biodiversity.
“Specifically, the deforestation regulation, which is still being prepared and refined, [forest] monitoring, the nature restoration regulation, LULUCF, carbon sequestration... These issues are not always directly connected with forests, but they do affect forests — both positively and negatively,” Mr Pesonen points out.
Pekka Pesonen would like an analysis of the combined impact of EU initiatives
“At first we did not realise that European Union legislation would affect Finland's forests and forestry. There is no overall coordination between the various policy initiatives. We ought to understand how the different initiatives are positioned in relation to their main objectives concerning forests,” Mr Pesonen believes.
He notes that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has spoken about the connection with nature and about sustainability, but from a Central European point of view. “Finns talk about forest management in a way that is quite different from what is understood by it in Central Europe, where management is more like a ‘manicure’: in the worst case the forests resemble parks.”
The importance of forest bioeconomy has not been recognised
Pekka Pesonen believes that the importance of forestry to the bioeconomy has not been recognised either in Finland or in Europe more widely, even though forests are the core of the bioeconomy. Using renewable natural resources in the best and most efficient way can replace fossil raw materials, and that will not be achieved without forests, Mr Pesonen stresses. “The forest sector faces a problem, namely that the importance to the bioeconomy of traditional forestry — sawmills, for example — is not fully recognised even in Finland. The timber industry is one of the most accepted and best-known resource-processing sectors in society, and its products are considered as self-evident as the food you can buy in any grocery shop. In Finland there has always been a sawmill in every village; it is simply a fact of life, but... it occurs to no one that the sawmill next door is also an element of the bioeconomy.
Pekka Pesonen points out that in Finland many populated places — towns and villages — make their living from forestry. If the volume of forestry declines, the populations of those places will shrink too.
“The European Commission's view on this matter differs from ours. If we look at the overall value of forests at local level, sawmills are of decisive importance in rural areas. If the aim of harvesting is to obtain durable, high-quality roundwood, then once processed that timber ends up in buildings, structures and furniture. At best, the carbon bound in it will not enter the atmosphere for decades, if not centuries. I am entirely convinced that no attention is paid to this fact in the European Union,” Mr Pesonen points out.
Pekka Pesonen believes that forest fires also set Finland apart from the rest of Europe and the world
“Last autumn, for example, my Canadian colleagues were worried that 16 million hectares of forest in their country had simply ‘gone up in smoke’. The total area of Finland's commercial forests is roughly 20 million hectares. If an area of that size burned down all at once, carbon would have to be sequestered for a very long time before those losses were recovered,” explains Pekka Pesonen.
According to Mr Pesonen, elsewhere in Europe forest fires are a factor that shapes forest policy. Fires destroy the financial base that depends on forests and the living environment of various species. Unlike other parts of Europe, where the forest floor is sometimes made up of dry scrub, so far we see few areas susceptible to forest fires in Finland. In recent years the number of forest fires in Finland has fallen.
“We have reached a situation where, in order to preserve biodiversity, we need to resort to controlled burning. This is done to maintain the populations of certain insects. Such a process might make someone in Portugal or Greece wonder whether ‘the lads in Finland’ are in their right minds, deliberately burning forests. Since we look after our interests in the European Union, we have to think and plan very carefully how to present and explain this, so that nobody regards such a management method as a provocation,” Mr Pesonen judges.
Forests provide stability and national security for Finnish society
Pekka Pesonen speaks of forests as a very important contributor to the stability of Finnish society. The country has more than 600,000 private forest owners. Finland's forests are closely bound up with Finnish identity, and in a way that other Europeans do not always understand or grasp. Mr Pesonen points out that Finland's forests provide general security not only for Finland but in fact for the whole of Europe; thanks to forestry, the eastern and northern regions of Finland are still inhabited.
“It is very important that people live in every region of the country and that the functions of society can be maintained,” Mr Pesonen is convinced.
Forests provide financial security and renewable energy. Finland is a full member of NATO, and Finland's (EU) border with Russia is more than 1,300 kilometres long.
“Forestry is the core of Finnish industry. The forest sector is part of our preparedness, and that in turn is important for our overall security,” stresses Mr Pesonen. “During the Second World War the forests were of decisive importance in ensuring that Stalin's Soviet Union failed to take Finland in a ‘blitzkrieg’. Thanks to the diversity of the natural landscape, the extensive network of waterways and the forests, invaders cannot simply cross our borders in off-road vehicles as they please,” Pekka Pesonen points out.
About Pekka Pesonen
Licentiate in agricultural and forest sciences, Permanent Secretary of Finland's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for the period from 1 February 2024 to 31 January 2029.
From 2007 – Secretary General of Copa Cogeca, which represents Europe's farmers and agricultural cooperatives.
Moved to Brussels together with his spouse, who began working at the European Commission in January 1995 as one of the first Finnish permanent officials appointed in connection with Finland's accession to the European Union.
Left his job at the dairy company Valio and in October 1997 began working as an EU adviser on livestock farming and cooperative affairs at the Brussels office of the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners of Finland.
Three children born in Brussels. The family now lives in Finland.
Sources: Luva, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
https://forest.fi/article/pekka-pesonen-suomalaiset-tekivat-vuonna-1995-ratkaisevan-virheen/