Finland's government clearcuts in habitats of threatened Siberian Jay- Forest industry giant UPM buys the wood

Helsinki/Virrat 1 December 2004. Three Finnish NGOs protest against destructive logging in state-owned forests. Governmental forest enterprise Metsähallitus continues logging in the Siberian Jay forests of Riponeva. The loggings threaten the only still viable habitat of this red-listed bird species in the province of Pirkanmaa, southwestern Finland.

Siberian Jay (Perisoreus infaustus) has declined in South Finland from a common forest species to the verge of extinction because of intensive forestry. In North Finland the bird is still common but it has already gone extinct in several southern provinces.

Metsähallitus continues the logging although the operations are in contradiction with their own environmental guidelines and with EU's Habitat Directive. The Habitat Directive prohibits any measures diminishing a species' breeding range. Environmental guidelines of Metsahallitus state, that "Viable habitats of threatened species are preserved".

Metsähallitus has stated that logging cannot be stopped because their customers demand timber from the area. NGOs have appealed to the forest industry giant UPM that buys wood from the area that they should influence Metsähallitus to stop the logging. However, UPM has refused.

"It is unbelievable, that any responsible paper company would deliberately use timber from the habitat of a seriously threatened bird species", says Greenpeace forest campaigner Matti Liimatainen. "However, this is exactly what UPM is doing at the moment."

"Destroying habitats of a regionally threatened species and diminishing its breeding range seems to be normal forestry to Metsähallitus. Yet everybody in Finnish forestry sector talk about the importance of preserving biodiversity. This case shows the real face of Finnish forestry - they have no true will to act responsibly."

Southern Finnish biodiversity programme Metso is a failure. It concentrates on small pilot projects while high conservation value forests are being logged all over South Finland, says forest specialist Sini Harkki from the largest Finnish NGO, Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FANC).

"These loggings are unacceptable to us. If similar operations continue on state lands in South Finland the loggings will evidently threaten the process between Metsähallitus and FANC concerning North Finland's old-growth forests", says chairman of FANC Heikki Simola.

For more information, please contact:

• Forest campaigner Matti Liimatainen, Greenpeace, tel. +358 400 346 329
• Forest specialist Sini Harkki, FANC, tel. +358 50 582 1107
• Chairman Heikki Simola, FANC tel.+358-50-566 0640

For photos and more information on Finnish forestry, please see