Skip navigation.

Xerox gets the message

Clearcut of state-owned Finnish old growth forest. Enlarge Image

Finnish logging HQ occupied

Yesterday Greenpeace activists began a five day protest at the state-owned Finnish Forest Park Services headquarters near the Finnish capital.

Finnish forest slated for logging which will begin any day. Enlarge Image

Finnish government takes the chainsaw to the last of their forests

Some 30 countries throughout eastern and western Europe have no intact ancient forest left. Finland retains only about five percent of the old-growth boreal forests that once covered most of the country, but now even that is under threat, and by the government's own forestry company.

Greenpeace activists paint the slogan Forest Crime in Europe in protest against the ongoing destruction of European ancient forests in Finland and to call on European Ministers to make the right decisions to further ancient forest protection in Europe during next week’s Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe, MCPF, taking place in Vienna. Enlarge Image

Paper exports may Finnish the forest

Europe is known more for its ancient cities than ancient forests. And if Finnish paper companies have their way, there may soon be nothing left of the old forests that once covered most of Europe. But Greenpeace activists confronted paper imports in Germany to expose the ongoing destruction of Finland's forests.

Reindeer in the Lappi reindeer herding cooperative. Enlarge Image

Finland Forest Rescue Station

Despite talk from Finnish government bureaucrats and protestations of innocence from paper giant Stora Enso, the fact remains that the Finnish government is breaking promises. Their logging company is logging in supposedly protected traditional reindeer herding forests in Arctic Lapland, in defiance of recommendations from the UN Human Rights Committee. They must have thought that it was too cold and remote for us to find them there. They were wrong.

Tengmalm owl in the last old growth forests of Finland. Enlarge Image

Temporary halt to logging of Finnish ancient forests

Metsahällitus, the Finnish state-owned forestry enterprise that is logging Finnish old growth forests, has agreed not to log in any of 476 areas of forest currently in dispute until urgent talks take place with environmental groups in Finland on 13 August. The disputed areas are outlined in detailed maps presented to Metsahällitus by Finnish environmental groups.

September, 2003, logging in Sami area Enlarge Image

Finland forests

Time is running out for the old-growth forests of Finland. The vast majority of Finland's valuable old-growth is owned by the state and logged by the state-owned company Metsähallitus. Metsähallitus' logging practices include clearcutting, logging in habitats of threatened and vulnerable species and logging in areas of special scenic or cultural value - including in areas that are critical for the reindeer herding of the indigenous Sami people.

Go to your national site

World websites

GREENPEACE EMAIL

Sign up for international email updates
SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Related news stories

Related campaigns

Latest Update

Updates straight from the forest

Check out the Forest Rescue Station weblog to keep in touch with, and show your support for, our icy activists!
U-turns in the forest Read about the bizarre U-turn by StoraEnso at their annual meeting and why it doesn't think cutting down the reindeer forests for it to make paper doesn't have anything to do with them!