Silvicultural and forest improvement work 2021

Total investments in silvicultural and forest improvement work were EUR 243 million in 2021. The investments decreased from the previous year 9 per cent at nominal prices, and because of high inflation rate 17 per cent for the previous year at real prices (deflated using the wholesale price index). Four-fifths of the investment costs were allocated to silvicultural work, and the rest to forest improvement work. Forest improvement includes fertilisation, ditch network maintenance, and basic improvement and construction of forest roads.

• The area of early and later pre-commercial thinning and improvement of young stands decreased by eleven per cent to 170,000 hectares, an decrease of 11 per cent from the previous year. The area of early and later pre-commercial thinning was 132,000 and that of improvement of young stands was 38,000 hectares.
• The area of artificial regeneration increased slightly from the previous year to 96,000 hectares. Planting accounted for 77 per cent of the artificial regeneration area, and the rest was seeded. The share of planting in artificial regeneration increased by two percentage points.
• A total of 2,100 kilometres of forest roads were basic improved or constructed. Ditch network maintenance dropped to 3,000 kilometres.

The statistics for silviculture and forest improvement include work carried out in private, commercial and state-owned forests. Since 2015, the statistics have not included work carried out independently by forest owners in their own forests, as this is not recorded in the statistics from the data collected from forest service providers.

The area treated with fellings based on notifications of forest use will be published as soon as Finnish Foresty Centre’s felling area statistics are available.