Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) partners with Michigan State University Department of Forestry to facilitate workshop on May 26th in Helsinki, Finland.
Researchers and leaders of government and industry from Finland and northern states of US will gather in Helsinki, Finland, on May 26, for a unique set of workshops focused on biobased forestry products.
“We are all aware that global climate change is the grand challenge of our time, and it requires a global response. Forests and wood products are vital to reduce carbon in the atmosphere and store it for long periods of time. Workshops such as this, bringing together experts from US and Finland can create a path forward in mitigating the climate crisis,” says John Kettle, Director, Commercial Operations and International Relations.
Attendees will advance climate change solutions by considering the unique ways in which the full cycle of forestry products – from resilient forest management to manufacturing to recycling or re-use at the end of a product’s life – can facilitate carbon storage and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This expert-facilitated workshop will be co-led by Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and MSU’s Department of Forestry.
Finland and the represented northern states share similar climates and long traditions of forest-based industries. The MSU-Luke workshop ends a Business Finland led trade and study mission of delegates primarily from the states of Michigan, Maine and Washington.
The upcoming workshop originated from a 2020 memorandum of understanding between Michigan and Finland, as well as parallel agreements with Finland between Maine and Washington to cooperate in advancing a sustainable forestry-based economy.
Cooperative relationships between Business Finland and state agencies such the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, alongside relationships with parallel agencies in other states, will elevate individual efforts to develop forest-based economies and job growth while combating climate change.
We gratefully acknowledge that the U.S. participants’ travel funding to the MSU-Luke workshop is provided by a grant to MSU from the U.S. Embassy in Finland, and U.S. Ambassador to Finland Douglas Hickey will open the workshop with his remarks together with Jaana Huso-Kallio, Permanent Secretary of Finland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The workshop will be hosted by Business Finland in their Helsinki headquarters.
