Biodiversity and forestry on common ground

Text: Tuovi Similä
Photos: Nilla Hietamäki, Sakari Hyrkkö, Reeta Viljakainen

 

UPM's unique Global Biodiversity Programme is itself, pun wholly intended, something of a rare species. The programme is being put into action around the world in each of the countries in which UPM currently owns forest, and this year will be further extended to include all of UPM's wood procurement operations. The programme aims to maintain and increase forest biodiversity, to ensure efficient wood production, and to promote best practices in sustainable forestry.

Biodiversity, put simply, means the variety of life around us and around the planet as a whole. Its vital importance to people the world over is, for many, perhaps not as easy to see or understand as, for instance, clean air or water. How can an obscure endangered insect, smaller than a pinhead and with an equally obscure, unpronounceable scientific name, have any real impact on me?

"That's the essence of responsibility; safeguarding a species without considering the immediate personal benefit of doing so," says UPM's Director of Sustainable Forestry, Timo Lehesvirta.

 

As the Biofore company, UPM must also think as broadly as possible about the new forest industry and its products. "By safeguarding biodiversity, we are also safeguarding core business areas for present and future generations," says Lehesvirta.


Timo Lehesvirta,
UPM's Director of Sustainable Forestry

"NGOs have played their part, but we also genuinely want
to be a frontrunner in this area and to bring our know-how
to the environmental debate."


UPM as a frontrunner

UPM began implementing its biodiversity protection programme at the end of the 1990s in Finland, and launched the programme internationally in 2006. The driving force behind the company's vision has been, above all, its desire to improve and develop its operations, but concern among stakeholders regarding the impacts of forest use has also been a significant factor.


The biodiversity programme focuses on six key areas: native tree species, deadwood, valuable habitats, forest structure, water resources and natural forests: "With our objectives tied to these key areas, we are able to operate anywhere at all, in native species-based forests or plantation forests."


UPM is running several research projects aimed
at developing methods
of promoting biodiversity in commercially managed
forests.

     

A diverse forest is a healthy forest


In Finland, forestry is based on the same indigenous tree species that colonised the country after the ice age. At the other extreme, UK forestry, for example, is based on exotic Sitka spruce plantations. There, UPM's goal is to return to the company's forests the native broadleaf tree and shrub species that were lost centuries ago, particularly in river valley habitats.


Native tree species are 'keystone species' on which many other indigenous species are dependent. In Finland, the programme's native species objective means the re-introduction into its spruce-dominated forests of broadleaves, particularly birch, that have long been marginalised by commercial forestry. The change is big, and is having a major impact on the forest landscape. Another key species for biodiversity is aspen, examples of which are now being left during harvesting as retention trees.


Mixed-species forests are also beneficial to wood production. Spruce, for example, benefits directly from improved nutrition and from birch root fungi.


According to Lehesvirta, biodiversity also promotes forest health and helps forests to adapt to climate change. "When species compete among themselves, diseases and noxious insects have a much weaker impact than in monoculture forests."

 

Fast results


UPM owns or manages a total of around 2.5 million hectares of forest in Finland, the UK, the United States, Russia and Uruguay. While the goal of promoting biodiversity is the same worldwide, the ways and means of achieving it are country-specific.


The programme is well underway in each of these countries, with the exception of Uruguay, where it will be introduced in the company's plantation forests during the current year. Lehesvirta also points out that Uruguay has no rainforest so there are no risks or plans for this kind of forest and indeed all of the country's natural-state forests are protected. UPM works purely with plantation forests which will come under the biodiversity programme. In addition, all of the country's natural-state forests are protected.


UPM is running several research projects aimed at developing methods of promoting biodiversity in commercially managed forests. This can be slow work – seeing the successful return of even a single species can often take years, sometimes generations – and yet the research projects have already achieved encouraging results within a very short period.


As an example, Lehesvirta highlights UPM's controlled burning project, which restores and creates habitats through planned and controlled forest burning. "Some insect species begin buzzing high above the canopy even during the burn, showing that the time span for species reaction can be as little as just a couple of hours."


In addition to research, the programme also focuses on biodiversity monitoring, training and education, stakeholder cooperation, and communication. "Monitoring is carried out continuously, and gives us valuable information on tree species ratios, deadwood quantity, and even individual species occurrences. We're still working on an effective global monitoring system though."

 

Examples of UPM biodiversity projects

Esker habitats in Finland
Some specialised eskers species are dependent on warm places and do not tolerate shade from tree crowns. To minimise the shade caused by trees, UPM has carried out selective fellings to create lighter and therefore warmer esker habitats. An esker is a winding ridge of sand and gravel seen in formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North America.

Rhododendron in Wales
As a non-native invasive species, Rhododendron ponticum represents one of the greatest threats facing native woodland in the UK. Removal of rhododendron encourages the restoration of
native woodland flora and fauna, improves woodland soil condition, and allows natural woodland ecological processes to operate.

Black grouse in the UK
The numbers of black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) have declined rapidly in recent years in the UK. The bird is 'Red Listed' and a UK Biodiversity Action Plan has been drawn up for the species. Black grouse recovery projects in four regions aim to increase the local breeding population and increase numbers by 10%.

Fire habitat project in Finland
The aim of the project is to increase the quantity and quality of forest areas that have been subjected to fire. Controlled burns are carried out as part of silviculture, and also in retention tree groups and esker habitats to promote the habitat of fire dependent species. UPM will study the impacts of these fire areas on species in cooperation with researchers and the environmental authorities.

Key elements and global targets of
the UPM Global Biodiversity Programme

Native tree species: species of tree occurring within their natural range of distribution.
Target: to maintain and increase the proportion of native tree species in company forests. Native tree species are much better able to support indigenous flora and fauna than exotic species.

Deadwood: dead and decaying native trees.
Target: to manage the quality and quantity of deadwood in order to enhance biodiversity. An estimated one in five species is deadwood-dependent. The majority of these are fungi and insects which release deadwood nutrients back into the ecosystem.

Valuable habitats: special habitats in which endangered or narrow-niche species occur.
Target: to protect valuable habitats in commercially managed forests. Typical sites include unique habitats in terms of nutrition and water balance.

Forest structure: a mixed-age structure at the landscape level and a mixed-canopy structure at the forest stand level.
Target: to retain and increase structural variation in managed forests, aiming at characteristics typical to natural forests, such as mixed size and age.

Water resources: aquatic habitats and wetlands.
Target: to conserve bodies of open water and wetland habitats within managed forest areas.

Natural forests: forests that show no forest management traits.
UPM does not log natural forests. Certain conservation areas are subject to restricted biodiversity promoting forest management measures, or fellings that do not endanger the conservation value of the site. In these cases, forest management plans are required for approval by the authorities.