PARTNERS IN CRIME - A GREENPEACE INVESTIGATION INTO FINLAND’S ILLEGAL TIMBER TRADE WITH RUSSIA 2006

• Partners in crime - a Greenpeace investigation into finland's illegal timber trade with Russia
  
  Whilst the Finnish Government tries to assure the world that it upholds principles of sustainable forest management and forest protection, it continues to launder illegally and unsustainably logged Russian timber through its border into the European market and beyond. Between June and August 2006, Greenpeace documented widespread illegal logging in the Russian Karelian Republic and the subsequent transport of illegally logged timber into Finland.
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PULP FRICTION: HOW STORAENSO IS PULPING SAMI REINDEER FORESTS 2005

• Pulp Friction: How StoraEnso is pulping Sámi reindeer forests
  
  In its marketing, the Finnish state-controlled paper giant StoraEnso likes to depict itself as a company that treads lightly on the earth. On its website and in regular communications with customers around the world, the company boasts of its commitment to sustainability, corporate governance and to policies ensuring its wood is not procured from environmentally or socially destructive sources.Yet in Finland, nothing could be farther from the truth.
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LAPLAND - STATE OF CONFLICT 2005

• Lapland: State of Conflict
  
  One thousand kilometres north of Finland’s capital Helsinki lie some of the largest tracts of reindeer forest left in Lapland. These forests are also the homeland of Northern Europe’s only indigenous people, the Sámi. Traditional free-grazing reindeer herding forms the basis of Sámi culture. During the cold Arctic winter months Lapland’s old-growth forests provide a lifeline for grazing reindeer. On the branches and trunks of trees grows the ‘horsetail’ lichen – an arboreal hanging lichen that is an essential wintertime food for the reindeer.
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CERTIFYING EXTINCTION 2004

• Certifying extinction
  
  The Finnish forest sector prides itself on its reputation for sustainable forestry, trading on the national certification standard, the Finnish Forest Certification System (FFCS), under which 95% of Finland’s forests are managed.
  
  This report compares key environmental criteria of the FFCS to those of the internationally recognised Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme. Logging under the FFCS threatens Finland’s biodiversity and the traditional rights of the indigenous Sámi people. The FFCS continues to allow logging in unprotected old-growth forests and other high-conservation-value forests.
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FINNISH FORESTRY: DESTROYING FORESTS, DESTROYING LIVELIHOODS 2003

• Finnish forestry: destroying forests, destroying livelihoods. Greenpeace-report, 4 pages, May 2003
  
  Throughout the world, ancient forests are in crisis. Some 80% of the original ancient forest cover is already degraded or destroyed. As part of its campaign to save the world’s remaining ancient forests Greenpeace is carrying out investigations into forest products companies involved in illegal, destructive and abusive activities, and calling on consumers, trading partners and governments to stop their role in driving this unscrupulous industry. While the threat to the world’s ancient tropical forests is well known, the threat to the last remnants of ancient forest in Europe are just as pressing. Even in a wealthy, forest-rich nation like Finland, industrial logging is jeopardising the survival of the country’s last ancient – or old-growth – forests.
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FINNISH FORESTRY: DESTROYING FORESTS, DESTROYING LIVELIHOODS 2003

• Finnish forestry: destroying forests, destroying livelihoods. Greenpeace-report, 13 pages, September 2003
  
  Even in a wealthy, forest-rich nation like Finland, industrial logging is jeopardising the survival of the country’s last ancient – or old-growth – forests. These forests are crucial for maintaining biodiversity and the traditional livelihoods of the indigenous Sami people and other traditional communities. Yet, despite calls from scientists and conservationists for increased levels of protection for these old-growth forests, the Finnish government continues to log these rare and vulnerable habitats, driven by demand from the country’s massive international paper industry. The key companies involved in this, who are buying old-growth forest for paper, are the three Finnish export giants, Stora Enso, UPM and M-Real.
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POLICIES OF DESTRUCTION 2002

• Policies of Destruction: Analysis on the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the protection of forest ecosystems in Finland
  
  Protection measures have been strongly limited by economic demands and, in state forests, by profit targets that inhibit planning of reserve networks based on ecological grounds. Logging of high conservation value forests is allowed to continue despite strong scientific evidence against it. In Finland, “sustainability” of forestry still implies, first and foremost, sustainability in the supply of timber to the industry.
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