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Biodiversity

Efforts to enhance biodiversity are integrated into all areas of our operations, from daily tasks to management decisions. Forests and plantations, stream waters, and production sites are the key focus areas of our biodiversity initiatives.

Maintaining and enhancing biodiversity is instrumental to the vitality of our business. We have integrated efforts to understand and minimize the impact of our operations on the living conditions of local flora and fauna.

Our sustainability activities are embedded in our operations, from daily tasks to management decisions, and extend across our entire supply chain. These actions are in line with our 2030 targets.

We report on our two key performance indicators annually:

Net-positive impact on biodiversity, including the development of a monitoring system covering our own forests in Finland and the USA and our plantations and land in Uruguay.

Obstacle-free streams, with a target of releasing or restoring 500 km of stream waters in Finland by 2030.

Forests’ health enhances biodiversity

Of all our actions, wood sourcing has the greatest negative impact on biodiversity due to its wide geographical coverage. Healthy forests are resilient to climate change and support diverse habitats and species, which is vital to the continuity of our business.

Since 2022, biodiversity-related targets and activities have been integrated into our global Forest Action program. Progress toward our net-positive impact on forest biodiversity (NPI) target is monitored using specific key performance indicators.

Forests and plantations (Forest Action)

Stream waters and biodiversity

We pay special attention to how our energy business, especially our hydropower plants, impacts biodiversity. Local living conditions for flora and fauna at these sites are improved by reducing emissions to air and water and, in general, by removing obstacles in streams.

We integrated our Migrating Fish program, launched in 2016, to our Stream Water Program in 2023 with the goal of releasing or restoring 500 km of stream waters by 2030. The base year is 2015.

Minimizing emissions at production sites

Industrial water and air emissions significantly impact biodiversity by altering the habitats of various species. We apply the best available techniques to minimize harmful emissions and to improve water quality.

Many of our pulp and paper mills have taken local action to enhance biodiversity. These efforts are highlighted in our pulp and paper mills’ EMAS reports.

EMAS reports

Enhancing biodiversity through collaboration

We work closely with NGOs, researchers, and government institutions to develop metrics for monitoring biodiversity, gain a deeper understanding of rare and endangered species, and promote conservation and sustainable management practices around the world.

Science Based Targets Network

We participated in the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) Corporate Engagement Program in 2023–2024 to develop methods, tools, and guidelines for setting science-based targets to maintain and enhance biodiversity. The SBTN methodology provided new insights into data availability and tools. In fall 2025 SBTN launched a pilot for the second version of Land Methods and we have participated in the pilot with a view to setting potential targets for forest management in Finland.

Partnering in eDNA research

We have been actively screening opportunities for eDNA research for several years. In 2024, we joined a three-year biodiversity project, “NORTHDIVeRSITY,” led by Natural Resources Institute Finland, Umeå University and the University of Oulu as project partners. The project will develop environmental eDNA monitoring methods and tools tailored to northern habitats to gain a better understanding of altered ecosystems and biodiversity.

Part of the eDNA project will be implemented on our land in Finland as part of our stream water program to evaluate the positive impact of barrier removal on biodiversity. We have also started an eDNA pilot in Uruguay with the Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable in 2024 to study aquatic biota in a selected protected area. According to the preliminary results, 24 additional fish species were detected, including one entirely new species. The pilot will continue in 2025, and the results indicate that eDNA methodology works as expected.

In 2025 studies related to eDNA continued in Finland and Uruguay. In Finland, three research projects with UPM's participation were initiated: The above mentioned, EU-funded NorthDIVeRSITY led by the Natural Resource Institute Finland (LUKE), ARVOVESI3 Oulujoki water framework vision actions led by Kajaani University of Applied Sciences and Sateenvarjo IV Migrating fish development on built water courses led by the Natural Resource Institute Finland (LUKE).

Holistic focus on biodiversity

Biodiversity is one of our environmental focus areas, and it is widely linked also to our management activities. In 2020, we linked the margin of a EUR 750 million revolving credit facility to the biodiversity enhancement in our forests in Finland. In 2022, we further strengthened this link by including biodiversity as a measure in the management remuneration and set it also as a KPI that is followed by the UPM Board of Directors.

News | 03/17/2020 08:00:00 | 3 min

UPM signs a EUR 750 million revolving credit facility with a margin tied to long-term biodiversity and climate targets

News | 02/05/2025 11:00:00 | 7 min

UPM’s Board of Directors has resolved to establish a new employee share savings arrangement and approved the commencement of new annual plans within UPM share incentive arrangements

Learn more about how we manage sustainability

We disclose a comprehensive amount of information about our environmental, social, and governance performance in our Annual Report 2024. The report complies with the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).

Read more about managing sustainability in our Sustainability Statement

Read more about business conduct in our Sustainability Statement