“The importance and impact of the Finnish Forest Foundation can be most clearly seen in the projects we fund. If the funding is purposefully directed and the projects are successful, we can achieve much more than one would expect from an office where two people work,” says Martha Fredriksson, Executive Director of the Finnish Forest Foundation.

The creation of the Finnish Forest Foundation in 1995 was, to some extent, driven by criticism heard from Central Europe, she says. Approximately 1/3 of Finnish timber sellers pay a voluntary sales promotion fee in connection with timber transactions, M. Fredriksson explains. As far as is known, this method, used to support the viability of forests, is only applied in Finland. This payment funds the Finnish Forest Foundation, which annually grants subsidies of approximately 1.5 million euros to support the Finnish forest sector, primarily in the areas of communication and research. (...)