Forest protection 1.1.2025

As of the beginning of 2025, Finland had a total of 3.0 million hectares of protected forests, representing 13% of the forest area. The area of protected forests increased by 38,000 hectares compared with 2022.

• Protected forests consisted of statutory protected areas (2.5 million hectares) and sites safeguarding biodiversity in commercial forests (0.5 million hectares).
• Compared with the situation at the beginning of 2022, the protected forest area grew by 38,000 hectares, of which 16,000 hectares were statutory protected areas and 22,000 hectares were biodiversity sites in commercial forests. The share of protected forests remained at 13% of the forest area.
• Northern Finland (Lapland, Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu) accounted for 78%, or 2.3 million hectares, of Finland's protected forests. Of this, 1.2 million hectares were forest land, and 1.1 million hectares were poorly productive forest land.
• Other regions are classified as Southern Finland, where 0.6 million hectares of forest were protected. In the south, forest land accounted for 84 % (0.5 million hectares) of the protected forest area, while poorly productive forest land covered 0.1 million hectares.
• Some protected areas are located outside forests. In addition to forests, forestry land includes wasteland and other forestry land. A total of 4.8 million hectares of forestry land was protected, accounting for 18% of the forestry land area. Of this, 4.1 million hectares were statutory protected areas and 0.7 million hectares were biodiversity sites in commercial forests.

Areas supporting the conservation of nature value covered 0.5 million hectares of forestry land at the beginning of 2025. These are not classified as protected forests in the statistics.

Natural Resources Institute Finland compiles forest protection statistics every three years, describing the situation at the beginning of the year. In the statistics, “forest” refers to the combined area of forest land and poorly productive forest land according to the national definition. The difference between forest land and poorly productive forest land lies in the growth rate of trees. Together, they form the wooded area, i.e., the forest.

Finland’s forest area according to the national definition is very close to the area used in international statistics based on the definition of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). International protection statistics apply the FAO classification. If an area belongs to several protection programs, it is recorded under the strictest protection category.