Biodiversity refers to diversity and variation of species and ecosystems. Biodiversity manifests as different habitats and species that are adjusted to live in certain kinds of environments. Genetic variation within a species is one aspect of biodiversity. People are totally dependent on life on the earth. Living nature provides a secure source of food and inspires mental wellbeing. From a bioeconomy perspective, nature offers different options for renewable raw materials and creates a foundation for sustainable operations and their development.
Biodiversity
UPM and biodiversity
Wood is the most important raw material for UPM’s production. In UPM's operations the most significant effects on biodiversity occur in wood sourcing. Wood production takes place on large land areas, and forestry operations have different effects on the state of a forest and the species inhabiting it.
UPM is committed to carrying out and developing sustainable forestry operations. The key objectives of sustainable forestry are efficient production of high-quality wood, maintaining and enhancing biodiversity and protection of water and the recreational and various other uses of forests.
Biodiversity is also linked to UPM’s financing. UPM is one of the first companies to link the pricing mechanism of a syndicated revolving credit facility (RCF) to both biodiversity and climate targets.
UPM-owned forests in Finland
UPM safeguards biodiversity in its own forests through the implementation of its biodiversity program. The biodiversity program was established in 1998 and covers environmental guidelines concerning operational activities, forest conservation and collaboration projects with stakeholders. UPM actively develops forest certification, which is an important tool in engaging operators throughout the forest industry in the principles of sustainable forestry.
UPM owns around half a million hectares of land in Finland. Part of the wood used by UPM’s mills is sourced from the company’s own forests. In addition to supplying wood to its mills, UPM’s forests have a significant role in research and development. The best practices developed in the company-owned forests are offered to forest customers as forestry services.
Aiming for a positive impact on biodiversity
UPM has set the target to improve the state of biodiversity while efficiently producing high-quality wood raw materials in the company-owned forests. The indicators used and the measures to be implemented are based on the comparison of natural and commercial forests and the gap analysis identifying the key differences between these two forest types.
Why must we invest in nature? The global population growth and the increasing pressure to use land have resulted in the loss of biodiversity on a global level, which, along with climate change, is the most significant environmental challenge of our time. A viable nature should be the target when the bioeconomy helps us move on from the non-renewable fossil-based options to the use of renewable raw materials.
Forest management
In Finland we use
100% native species
in forest regeneration
In our forests, we are targeting to diversified tree species ratios and forest structure as well as increasing the amount of deadwood. The aim with these is improved diversity of forests by increasing the combination of features typical to natural forests.
Conservation
Our forests in Finland have
39 067
protected valuable habitats
The areas with most important biodiversity values are protected and left out of wood production. These protected areas include small-scale key biotopes, larger conservation areas and individual occurrences of species.
Projects and collaboration
Over
30 projects
with our stakeholders
We develop our actions by biodiversity projects with our stakeholders. Projects complement our operational activities and conservation measures. We create a new kind of culture of operation, emphasising responsibility and collaboration, and mainstreaming sustainable forestry.
Biodiversity indicators and targets
The status of forest nature is monitored by using selected biodiversity indicators. By these indicators, changes in forest structure are identified and impact of protection is monitored. Indicators are also set to follow implementation of biodiversity projects and indicator development. We have set indicator-specific targets which are followed by using chosen metrics.
| Indicator | Target | Metrics |
|---|---|---|
| Tree species | Increase the broadleaved tree species volumes | Share of broadleeaved trees |
| Forest age | Maintain diverse forest age structure | Share of different forest age classes |
| Forest structure | Maintain and increase diverse forest structure | Share of alternative regeneration methods |
| Indicator development | Complement the set of indicators and develop monitoring with researchers | Create deadwood volumes and diversity monitoring for commercial forests. Biodiversity index and indicator development with external experts. |
| Protected areas | Improved nature conservation network | Nature conservation areas (protected areas/total hectares) |
| Valuable habitats | Protected valuable habitats with increased deadwood | Valuable habitats protected (protected habitat hectares/total hectares) |
| Habitat restoration | Improved biodiversity on restored environments | Existence of habitat restoration projects |
| Species and habitat projects | More joint stakeholder projects to protect biodiversity | Existence of species and habitat projects |
Forest management
The target of forest management is diversifying tree species composition and forest structure as well as increasing the amount of deadwood. We combine these factors with the aim of increasing the combination of features typical to natural forests and improving diversity, such as increasing the different kinds of deadwood in microclimates and adding different tree species to areas that used to be dominated by one species. The rate of stand development and decomposition processes determine the speed at which changes in forest structure and species occur.
UPM uses spruce, pine and birch for its industrial operations. The use of native tree species in industry creates a strong foundation for maintaining and improving forest biodiversity in the areas allocated for wood production. These tree species are grown in their natural forest habitats and are adapted to the prevailing conditions. The trees that are grown interact with the surrounding forest ecosystem. A significant number of forest species are dependent on industrial tree species in different ways. Our goal is to increase the share of broadleaves, which is why we aim to add broadleaved trees to forests dominated by conifers.
The amount of deadwood is the main biodiversity-related difference between natural forests and commercial forests. A fifth of forest species in Finland live on deadwood. Most of the organisms dependent on deadwood are fungi and insect species, and each of these species is adapted to live on a certain type of decaying wood. Therefore, the tree species, sturdiness, accompanying species, microclimate and state of decay of the wood, etc. affect the species living on deadwood. UPM aims to increase the amount of deadwood through a variety of means, for example by leaving retention trees.
Different species are adapted to forests of different ages. The rotation cycle of commercial forests is long. Only part of the forests are renewed annually. UPM aims to secure the diverse forest age structure for wood production reasons, too. This also supports the success of the species adapted to the different succession stages of the forest. Retention trees, undergrowth and shelter for game and an uneven-aged forest structure increase the structural diversity of forests.
Tree species composition in UPM's Finnish forests 2020
Broadleaves
11,10 %
share
Baseline 2019: 11,01 %
Pine
61,93 %
share
Baseline 2019: 62,00 %
Spruce
26,97 %
share
Baseline 2019: 26,99 %
Deadwood volumes
Deadwood volume was measured to be
9 m3 per hectare in 2018
in a UPM owned forest estate in Janakkala
Modelling shows, that the mean volume is
21 m3 until year 2100
when following existing biodiversity guidelines
Forest conservation
The goal of conservation is to choose the most important areas ecologically and to leave these out of commercial use. We protect key biotopes, larger conservation areas and occurrences of species. In some areas, we carry out restoration and management operations to secure the species that typically inhabit those areas. We choose the areas to conserve based on the law and on a voluntary basis, due to conservation value. Conservation means that the chosen area is totally set-aside, or if it is managed, forest management is done in a way that ensures biodiversity.
Share of areas which are protected or in restricted use
18 %
of UPM's Finnish land.
Baseline 2019: 17,28%
The protection percentage includes strictly protected forestry land (11.77%) and protected areas, which can be managed and used in accordance with the instructions of authorities (4.34%), as well as other specially managed sites (1.83%). The sites to be specially managed are based on the company's own decision and have a specific environmental goal for their management.
UPM’s principle is to comprehensively protect key biotopes. Key biotopes include biodiversity values that are different from the rest of the forest. Their water and nutrient balance differs from ordinary forests. Key biotopes are usually the habitats in lowest or highest points in forest landscape, or areas limited by bodies of water. In these habitats, there are species that are adapted to the prevailing conditions of them. Key biotopes are usually small areas but they are very significant for the species adapted to them.
Conservation areas are larger protected areas with significant conservation values. Typical conservation areas are sites that have substantial amounts of decayed wood or are otherwise valuable, peatlands in their natural state, and areas consisting of multiple key biotopes that are situated close to each other. Conservation is the strict protection of an area, or protection that is based on a separate management plan or other guidelines with the aim of safeguarding biodiversity.
The protection of species is mainly ensured through the protection of their habitats and favouring the structural features of forests that the species need to thrive. Some species are recognised based on the areas they inhabit. These species include eagles, ospreys and other birds of prey, the flora in eskers and groves, and the insects dependent on these plants. In some cases, preserving the prevalence of species in a particular habitat requires special management operations. These management activities are carried out both within the conservation areas and outside of them.
Protected key biotopes in UPM's Finnish forests
| Key biotope | Number of sites |
|---|---|
| Sandy meadow, dune | 13 |
| Hardwoods, hazel grove | 120 |
| Esker, sunny hillside | 78 |
| Cliff, gulley | 904 |
| Rocky ground | 2768 |
| Wetland | 454 |
| Threatened species | 1457 |
| Pond | 801 |
| Grove | 405 |
| Spring | 1355 |
| Mire, bog, swamp | 10820 |
| Brook | 3741 |
| Flood meadow | 224 |
| Black alder swamp, eutrophic swamp | 803 |
| Kettle | 55 |
| Other protection reason | 15069 |
| TOTAL 2020 | 39067 |
| In 2019 (baseline) total |
37595 |
Projects and collaboration
We develop our actions by biodiversity projects with our stakeholders. Projects complement our operational activities and conservation measures. We create a new kind of culture of operation, emphasising responsibility and collaboration, and mainstreaming sustainable forestry.
Groves, areas affected by fires and esker forests are home to approximately 60% of the threatened forest species. However, the proportion of these habitats in Finland and in UPM’s forests is very small. Usually, the species adapted to live in these habitats require active management operations. UPM carries out projects that aim to conserve and improve the living conditions of specialised species in these habitats. We create and improve burning environments by the controlled burning of a variety of forest areas and promote the exposure of esker forests to sun through harvesting and soil preparation.
We are developing forest regeneration methods to replace clearcutting at sites where constant coverage is feasible for wood production and where it is justified to maintain the tree coverage for environmental reasons. These sites are located both in peatlands and mineral soils. In addition to biodiversity, uneven-aged forest structure management may also be justified by water conservation, carbon balancing or landscaping considerations.
Some of the peatlands and small waterways are actively restored with the goal of returning these sites to their natural conditions. Usually this concerns changes related to the water economy. Restoration operations are carried out after careful consideration, avoiding ecological risks. It is often viable to leave the peatlands to restore themselves naturally without any accelerated operations if the valuable species inhabiting the sites mostly occur in ditches. This is because the earlier drying actions have lowered the water surface.
Our species projects aim to improve the living conditions of individual species. These projects include improving the artificial nest network for Ospreys and other birds of prey and providing guidelines for wood harvesting near the nests. There are also species living in esker forests and groves that require special attention. All known occurrences of threatened species requiring conservation are protected in forest management.
The EU funds some of the environmental projects concerning forests. UPM takes part in the BEETLES-Life and PAAHDE-Life projects. The Beetles project focuses on developing the habitats of threatened beetles, while the Paahde project is aimed at improving the living conditions of the species adapted to sun-exposed eskers.
Threatened wood-inhabiting fungi are transplanted to new locations in collaboration with LUKE (Natural Resources Institute Finland) and the University of Helsinki. This is a brand new way of conserving biodiversity. By carrying out this project, we hope to discover whether the restoration of fungi to the forest environment can be accelerated with transplantations. We are focusing the transplantations in chosen deadwood sites in UPM’s forests. In this research project the success of the fungi is monitored with DNA analyses and species inventories.
We are monitoring the development of biodiversity with a set of selected indicators. Since it is not possible to monitor all species living in forests, we monitor the state of nature through the development of structural features and through the monitoring of conservation and other operations. The key development areas are the indicators and monitoring processes. We aim to gain more and more reliable and extensive data on biodiversity development.
UPM's biodiversity projects 1998 - 2020
Our Uruguayan plantations
Our plantations in Uruguay are situated on grasslands that were formerly used for cattle grazing. We do not convert natural forest areas into plantations, and none of our actions result in any deforestation. In our plantation forests in Uruguay, all valuable biodiversity hotspots such as wetlands and remnants of natural forests are protected. All native species living in these areas are protected by law.
We engage in successful cooperation with local environmental organizations in Uruguay. This work aims to preserve nature and the diversity of native ecosystems and species. The main purpose of the co-operation is to contribute to the biodiversity and enhance the sustainable use of natural resources in the long term. We work together with organizations such as Vida Silvestre and Aves Uruguay.
