New Scientist - USA (2021-10-30)

30 October 2021 | New Scientist | 21

Field notes The path to net zero

A wooden circular economy Finland wants to make everything

from ceramics to medical devices and even satellites from wood,

helping it to hit carbon neutrality by 2035, finds Graham Lawton

I AM in a forest in Finland

watching trees die a brutal

death. A monstrous machine like

something from The War of the

Worlds is lumbering among the

pines, its deadly arm swaying

menacingly. Every now and again

it selects a victim, grasps it at the

base and slices through the trunk

like butter. As the tree crashes

through the canopy, the machine –

called a Scorpion – raises it aloft as

if in triumph, strips the branches

and butchers the trunk into three.

It is all over in seconds.

Despite the apparent

ruthlessness, this is how benign

forest management is done in a

country that is betting the farm

on wood. Finland is aiming to be

carbon neutral by 2035, largely by

creating a “circular bioeconomy” –

one in which all the material

and energy inputs come from

sustainable wood or renewable

energy, and all the products are

100 per cent recyclable. Fossil

fuels are history.

That brave new economy

starts right here. The forest I

am visiting is on a farm about

100 kilometres north of Helsinki.

The current owners, Laura and

Mika Hämäläinen, are the latest

in a long line of family members

involved in the business. Their

350-hectare forest has been passed

down the generations since 1724.

Family ownership of forests

is the norm in Finland: about

60 per cent of its 23 million

hectares of woodland is owned

by 600,000 private individuals.

They can largely do as they please

with their trees, but many are

enlightened, long-term owners

who understand the concept

of a circular bioeconomy and

manage their forest accordingly,

says Marko Mäki-Hakola, forest

director at MTK, Finland’s

federation of farmers and

forest owners.

Today’s operation is called

thinning, where about 10 per cent

of the trees are chopped down to

give others light and space to

reach their full potential. This

pinewood was planted in the

1960s and has been thinned twice

before. In another 20 years, most

of the remaining trees will be

felled and the area replanted.

So far, so conventional. But

where this differs from regular

forestry is the attention that is

paid to the needs of biodiversity

and the climate. Most of today’s

harvest will be sent to a sawmill

for processing, but some will be

left to become dead wood, a vital

habitat for up to 5000 species of

animals and fungi. Some trees

are cut off about 2 metres up and

left standing as “high stumps”,

another form of dead wood

with its own ecosystem.

“Nature management is part

of forest management,” says

Markus Nissinen, MTK’s local

environmental specialist. The way

the Hämäläinens manage their

forest aims to balance the needs of

humans and nature, while keeping

the ecosystem healthy for future

generations, he says.

Taking this nature-based

approach is also good for the

climate. According to Jari Leppä,

Finland’s minister of forestry and

agriculture, the country’s forests

grow by just over 100 million cubic

metres of wood per year, about

70 per cent of which is harvested.

This is plenty for a bioeconomy

and also to meet Finland’s climate

goals. The net effect is its forests

sequester 16 million tonnes of

carbon dioxide a year, about a third

of total emissions, and as the

country phases out coal, it is on

track to be carbon neutral by 2035.

Forest owners are also flocking

to a voluntary MTK scheme that

pays them to set aside areas for

biodiversity. The Hämäläinens

take me to a wood that is managed

as a habitat for Siberian flying

squirrels, which are vulnerable in

this region. There are also lynx,

though they are rarely seen.

Later that day, I visit companies

and researchers that are putting

Finland’s wood to work, from

construction materials to novel

applications such as ceramics,

clothing, medical devices,

industrial chemicals, fibre-optic

cables and even a satellite. Much of

this is in the R&D stage, but these

are the tiny acorns from which

a new world economy can grow.

Of course, Finland is an ideal

candidate to create a wood-based

bioeconomy: it is 75 per cent

forested and has no fossil fuel

deposits to fall back on. But the

model is being copied by other

northern nations such as Russia

and Canada, says Leppä.

Temperate countries with

very different types of forest,

such as the UK and Ireland,

also have much to learn, says

ministerial adviser Elina Warsta.

To get where we need to be by

2050, it seems the world needs

to follow Finland’s lead and start

tearing up some trees. ❚

Graham’s visit was paid for by

the Finnish embassy in London

Giant machines can make

quick work of managing

forestry areas

GR

AH

AM

LA

WT

ON

100 million

Cubic metres of wood that grows

in Finland’s forests each year

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