Total roundwood removals and drain by region, 2019

In 2019, a total of 72.9 million cubic metres of roundwood were harvested from Finnish forests. It was 5.2 million cubic metres less than in the peak year of 2018, but still the second highest volume ever recorded in statistics. In addition, this was 8.1 million cubic metres, or 13 per cent, higher than the average of the preceding ten-year period.
Of the total roundwood removals, 63.7 million cubic metres, or 87 per cent, consisted of logs and pulpwood. Of these, 63.3 million cubic metres were felled for the forest industries or for export and 0.3 million cubic metres for domestic use by forest owners. Logs accounted for 26.1 million cubic metres and pulpwood for 37.6 million cubic metres.
The remainder, 9.2 million cubic metres, consisted of energy wood, i.e. stemwood to be used as fuelwood in residential housing or as wood chips in heat and power plants. In addition, 2.6 million cubic metres of logging residues and stumps were also harvested from forests for burning.
Total roundwood removals decreased by at least 10 per cent in the regions of Kymenlaakso, Southern Savonia, Tavastia Proper and South and North Karelia. In Ostrobothnia, Kainuu and Lapland, roundwood removals remained fairly unchanged or increased slightly.
Luke estimated in the winter of 2020 that the sustained yield of Finnish forests during the ten-year period from 2016 to 2025 is 80.5 million cubic metres of roundwood per annum in the whole of Finland. As the level of roundwood removals varies from one year to the next, roundwood removals and the felling potential figures should be analysed over a period of several years.
Finland’s roundwood removals were at the same level during the period from 2016 to 2019 and in 2019, totalling 91 per cent of the felling potential. However, regional differences were higher. In Northern Finland in Finland’s three northernmost regions, three quarters of the estimated felling potential were covered between 2016 and 2019. During the same period, the corresponding figure was 97 per cent in Southern Finland.
Between 2016 and 2019, average roundwood removals exceeded the maximum sustained yield by at least five per cent in the regions of South Karelia, Kymenlaakso, Southern Savonia and Tavastia Proper. In 2019, the sustained yield was only exceeded as much in South Karelia and the Åland Islands, where storm damage increased roundwood removals.
Last year, the roundwood drain decreased to 88 million cubic metres. The total drain comprises roundwood removals, as well as naturally died stemwood and stemwood of logging residues left in the forest. The volume of standing trees increased by approximately 108 million cubic metres on the basis of the National Forest Inventory. This means that the total volume of growing stock increased by more than 19 million cubic metres.

Data on total roundwood removals and drain in 2019 revised on 7 June 2021.