Forestry centres: wood shortage no reason to close down Kemijärvi mill

The heads of three regional forestry centres in the north of Finland say that there is no wood shortage in the area that would make it necessary to close down the Stora Enso pulp mill in Kemijärvi. Stora Enso has announced plans to shut down the mill, which is located in Finnish Lapland.
     According to estimates by the heads of the regional forestry centres of Finnish Lapland, Oulu, and Kainuu, Jukka Ylimartimo, Niilo Piisilä, and Jorma Tolonen, felling in the north could be increased by 3.5-4.3 million cubic metres a year without danger to the diverse use of forests, or to nature as a whole.
     Ylimartimo says that in Finnish Lapland alone, felling could be increased by 1.4 cubic metres a year, to 5.5 million cubic metres. The estimate is based on calculations by the Finnish Forest Research institute (METLA). About 60 per cent of the potential increase in felling would be in private forests, and the rest in state-owned forests.
     
The potential increase for wood harvesting in Finnish Lapland alone is more than the 1.35 million cubic metres of wood that the Kemijärvi pulp mill uses in a year.
     "Felling could be gradually increased, but most intensely only after five to ten years. Otherwise the diverse use of the forests would suffer", says Hannu Jokinen, director of Metsähallitus - the state enterprise that administers state-owned land and water areas.
     "In my view, Stora Enso has not given the real reasons why it decided to close down the Kemijärvi mill. There has never been a shortage of wood there, nor is there in Kemi", says Professor Matti Kärkkäinen of the University of Joensuu.
     Tolonen points out that forest industry companies like to play it safe. Their estimates of availability of wood are set below their real production potential.
     Piisilä says that 40 per cent of the felling potential in North Ostrobothnia is in drained swampland, where trees grow well.
     "The annual growth of forest in our area is 9.6 million cubic metres, whereas it was just 4.2 million about 20 years ago. The situation is almost identical in Lapland", Piisilä says.
     Ylimarto says that there is enough wood in the forests of Northern Finland for the existing pulp and paper mills. "A different matter is if we want to divert the flow of wood in the north to the south and east to make up for the reduction of imports from Russia."
     
Last year felling in the north of Finland added up to 12.1 million cubic metres of wood. About two thirds of the felling was in private forests. Use of wood by the largest forest industry companies in Northern Finland was about 9.62 cubic metres.
     Last year the Finnish forest industry as a whole used about 75 million cubic metres of wood, including about 19 million cubic metres that was imported.
     Forest growth has increased especially in the north of Finland, where it reached 28.8 million cubic metres last year. Part of the increase is in forests which are protected for nature and recreation, and which are off limits for felling.
     "Nevertheless, all imports from Russia could be replaced by felling at home, although it is not easy", says Professor Erkki Tomppo of the Finnish Forest Research Institute METLA.
     Professor Tomppo says that felling could be increased by as much as 20 million cubic metres for a short period of time.
     "If care for sapling stands, thinning, and other measures were taken early enough, it would be possible to significantly increase felling in a manner that would still be sustainable", Tomppo says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Protesters in Kemijärvi occupy pulp mill slated for closure (4.1.2008)
  Ruukki Group offers to buy Kemijärvi pulp mill (21.12.2007)
  Minister says government is not to intervene in Stora Enso closures (6.11.2007)
  Wood shortage threatens pulp production in Kemijärvi (15.6.2007)
  Finnish government allocates funds to areas hit by Stora Enso closures (26.10.2007)

Links:
  Metsähallitus website: