Forest management

Through sustainable forest management, we diversify the composition of our forests. For example, by increasing the volume of deadwood, and by introducing more broadleaved trees to forest stands, we improve the biodiversity of commercial forests. This helps commercial forests better resemble natural ones, making them more habitable for organisms reliant on diverse forest structures. By these actions we aim to increase the features typical for natural forests in commercial forests, and thus to safeguard the living conditions of habitants of threatened species. Diverse forests grow faster and healthier and, thus, are more resilient to the changing climate.

In forest management, we monitor our progress through four key indicators:

Indicator	Target	Metric
Tree species	Increase the broadleaved tree species volumes	Share of broadleaved 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
Dead wood	Increase the deadwood volumes in commercial forests	Volume of deadwood per hectare

We measure our impact on:

Tree species

In light of current research data, increasing the proportion of broadleaved trees improves the forest’s growth and yield as well as the diversity of its species and its resilience to climate change.

Target: Increase the volume of broadleaved tree species

Metric: Share of broadleaved trees in UPM’s Finnish forests

Deadwood volumes

About a quarter of the species living in our forests in Finland are directly or indirectly dependent on decaying wood.

Target: To increase the amount of deadwood to 10 cubic metres per hectare

Forest age and structure

Different species are adapted to forests of different age. The rotation cycle of UPM-owned commercial forests is long, and only part of the forests are renewed annually. Retention trees, shelter for game and continuous-cover silviculture help maintain an uneven-aged forest structure.

Target: Maintain diverse forest age structures
Metric: Share of over-100-year-old forests of total land in UPM-owned forests in Finland (%), 2018.

Forest structure

Target: Maintain and increase diverse forest structures

More than a fifth of Finland's forest species depend on deadwood

Read press release

Broadleaves trees improve the growth, biodiversity and climate-proofing of forests

Read article

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