UPM launches program to increase biodiversity in its forests

In 2018, UPM set the target of increasing biodiversity in its forests in Finland while efficiently producing high-quality wood raw material. To measure the evolution of this objective, biodiversity in natural forests is compared with commercial forests.

According to the company, studies have shown a difference between these types of forests in terms of the amount of deadwood, which suggested a new approach to achieving the objective. Accordingly, UPM has set a goal to increase the amount of deadwood in its commercial forests from the current level of about five cubic meters per hectare to ten cubic meters per hectare.

In UPM’s protected areas and commercial forests where a specific nature management target has been set, the deadwood target is twenty cubic meters per hectare. The new targets are part of UPM’s Forest Action, the company’s Forest Responsibility program.

UPM’s success in increasing biodiversity is measured not only by the amount of deadwood, but also by other indicators such as the number of broadleaved trees and the number of protected areas.

“More than a fifth of Finland’s forest species depend on deadwood at some point in their lives. It is therefore natural to set an ambitious target for the amount of deadwood in commercial forests in order to increase biodiversity. In order to ensure sustainable sourcing of wood raw material in the future, we need to safeguard biodiversity in many ways”, says Tuomas Kara, Environmental Manager at UPM Forest.

The amount of material in the company’s forests is based on data from the National Forest Inventory (VMI) of the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (Luke) for forests owned by UPM. In cooperation with Luke, the accumulation of deadwood and its impact on biodiversity will also be studied.