Forest-based industries have a significant role in promoting sustainable development. Well-managed forests play an essential role in natural carbon and water cycles, biodiversity and wellbeing of local communities.
FAQ
These are the most frequently asked questions we receive related to forests
The main raw material of UPM’s products is renewable wood originating from forests or plantations, both being an important carbon sink or carbon storage. We are committed to climate positive forestry, meaning that we harvest less than we grow and ensure that our forests and plantations remain carbon sinks.
In 2024, the annual carbon sink from our own forests in Finland and in the US and owned and leased plantations in Uruguay has averaged -2.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent over the past five years calculated by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).
Our production and operations generate fossil CO2 emissions. We aim to decrease our own emissions by 65% by the year 2030. In addition, we have set a target to decrease the fossil CO2 emissions of our supply chain by 30% by the year 2030. You can follow the development of these targets in our Annual Report.
Active, timely forest management increases forest growth, and ensures that forests contribute to mitigating the climate change.
We are committed to keep our forests and plantations as carbon sink in the long term. Forest is a carbon sink when it binds more carbon than it releases. In practice this means that the growth of our forests is more than the amount of harvested and naturally dying trees, as well as emissions from soil. When forests are a carbon sink, their carbon storage grows.
Forestry practices that maintain or increase the carbon sink of forests, can be called climate positive. Climate positive forestry means also actions to increase the forest growth and to create new carbon sinks through tree plantations or by reforesting new areas.
Clear-cut is a common method for final felling in boreal and temperate forests using rotational forestry (even-aged forest management). Despite the name, groups of living trees and deadwood are left on the harvesting site to promote biodiversity. We ensure regeneration of each forest site according to the principles of sustainable forest management.
When looking at climate impact, it is not reasonable to look at the impact at a level of an individual logging site, but at a wider area. In our case, we look at our forest property.
Crucial to the climate impact is the overall impact of the activity: the ratio of carbon bound to and released from forests and soil. We make sure that on a long term our forests always grow more than the use and natural removal is. By doing so, our forests remain as carbon sink. This means, that an individual logging site may temporarily be a source of carbon.
There are two ways to increase the carbon sequestration:
1) To manage forest so that they grow as efficiently as possible. In practice, this means for example timely seedling stand management and thinning, which release more growth resources for the remaining trees to grow. Using traditionally bred tree seed and seedling origins can increase the forest growth by tens of percentages in Finland. According to the sustainable forestry principles forests are always regenerated after harvesting and harvesting amounts are maintained on a sustainable level on a long term. If forests are managed with continuous-cover forestry, we always secure the growth of new trees.
2) To manage forests to be more resilient to damages. Also in this case, timely, good forest management is the best way to maintain forests health and vitality. When forests are grown as mixed-species forests, they are more diverse and thus more resilient towards different kinds of damages and disturbances that could lead to carbon emissions from the forest (forest fires, windfalls, pests and diseases). In Finland this means increasing the share of broadleaved trees.
Deforestation means permanent land use change: wood harvesting should not be confused with deforestation.
We follow the principles of the global regulation, including the upcoming EU deforestation regulation EUDR. EUDR prohibits deforestation and forest degradation.
We do not accept deforestation and UPM’s wood sourcing does not cause deforestation anywhere in the world. We know the origin of the wood we use and are using third-party verified chain-of-custody systems to trace the origin of it. Also, EUDR requires us to geolocate all the wood we use that falls within the scope of the regulation. We always make sure, that our whole supply chain operates responsibly, and we do not accept deforestation in any parts of the chain. We always regenerate the forests after harvesting.
Sustainable harvesting levels are based on national forest inventory data. In Finland the forest harvests and naturally dying wood (together called removals) have been substantially smaller than forest growth since 1970’s. The forest growth has doubled in 50 years, which has meant that we have been able to increase the harvest levels remarkably in Finland over time.
Active forest management increases forest growth, and availability of wood raw material. If demand for wood grows, we should focus on enhancing the forest growth.
Forest area in Europe is increasing, and sustainably established plantations have potential to increase the use of wood globally. It is important to balance harvesting levels with climate and biodiversity targets.
Biodiversity is safeguarded in our daily operations which always include nature management actions such as buffer zones or leaving decaying deadwood in the forest. We protect the valuable key biotopes and habitats and have protected also wider forest areas. By maintaining and improving the biodiversity of our forests we also can adapt to changes and risks that climate change is causing to our forests.
We are working to better understand the negative impact of our activities on biodiversity and are taking actions to minimize it.
Biodiversity
Diverse and well-functioning forest ecosystems are productive. Forests provide many benefits – also called ecosystem services. Forests provide wood raw material, habitats for many species, food and recreation. They also sequester carbon from the atmosphere, circulate and purify water and support soil formation, pollination, and nutrient cycling. So, from a business perspective it’s clear why we are interested in biodiversity: our business is based on sustainable use of forests on a long-term. That’s why we want to keep forests healthy and growing for generations to come. It’s a business fundamental.
In our operations forest’s biodiversity is safeguarded through best forest management practices, legal requirements, and forest certification. We safeguard biodiversity by several means:
- protecting habitats that are critical to biodiversity
- ensuring diverse tree species composition and structural variation in the boreal forests
- leaving buffer zones around water systems
- increasing deadwood and
- protecting threatened species.
In addition to our everyday actions, we are actively developing new ways to enhance forest biodiversity by carrying out biodiversity projects. Anexample of ground-breaking initiatives, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) has started testing the impacts of transplanting threatened wood-inhabiting fungi into UPM’s forests in Finland.
UPM’s certified eucalyptus plantations are situated on natural grasslands (the largest natural vegetation type in Uruguay) previously used for cattle grazing. Plantations are established on forest priority soils (which is a legal status given by the authority), which are sites with poor productivity for agriculture but suitable for tree plantations. UPM does not, and will not, convert natural forests into plantations. Natural forests cover around 5% of the country and are protected by law. Even though the biodiversity values in the planted stands are lower than in the natural surrounding areas, in each region a significant percentage of the area remains in its natural condition being a harbour for a big part of the local flora and fauna. Thus, on average, 60% of UPM-owned land is planted and 40% unplanted.
UPM’s biodiversity approach in Uruguay focuses on diverse landscape management, where planted and natural unplanted areas coexist. Currently, 20% of the total own land is already defined as conservation areas. In 2024, UPM renewed biodiversity indicators for its land in Uruguay.
Our target is to improve the level of biodiversity in company-owned forests and land in Finland, Uruguay, and in USA. Together with external experts we have defined indicators which are used to monitor our progress towards the target. We have nine biodiversity indicators for Finland, five for Uruguay, and six for USA, which are part of our target for the net positive impact on biodiversity (NPI). The target is not monitored on a level of a single forest site. The idea is to monitor the total impact on all company forests.
The status of forest nature is monitored by using selected biodiversity indicators for Finland: tree species, forest structure, conserved areas, valuable habitats, habitat restoration, species and habitat projects, deadwood, and indicator development. For Uruguay, the indicators are linked to developing the nature conservation area network, maintaining and enhancing endemic and threatened species populations in formal conservation areas and controlling and decreasing invasion of exotic woody species populations in conservation areas. For USA we launched the indicators in 2024. The indicators include deadwood inventory, targets for our mixed wood silviculture and better identification of the riparian and wetland habitats and old forests. We report our progress regularly.
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