What is the problem? Why is Greenpeace against logging?

Throughout the world, ancient forests are in crisis. Some 80 percent of the original ancient forest cover is already degraded or destroyed. What remains is under threat - mostly from the logging industry. The forest destruction results in mass extinction of many animal and plant species. In Finland, the situation looks even worse. Only one million out of 20 million hectares of natural forest remain.

We are not against logging and forestry. On the contrary, we support ecologically, socially and economically sustainable use of forests in all countries and continents where we campaign. We also support the need for protected areas, where industrial logging should not be allowed.

We are supporting the demands made by the majority of Sámi reindeer herding co-operatives in the Sámi Homeland, who have presented maps on crucially important reindeer grazing forests that should be left outside of industrial logging. These are not all the areas of forests in the region.

There are forests outside of mapped areas where the reindeer herders and Greenpeace don't have any objections to forestry. These areas can provide raw material for small-scale highly processed production in local level, such as furniture building, log houses construction and wooden boats. But using several hundreds of year old trees for paper production, harming traditional and legally protected Sámi reindeer herding livelihood is not acceptable to Greenpeace.

What is Greenpeace doing in Inari, Finnish Lapland?

We are campaigning against the ongoing destruction of the world's last remaining ancient forests. In the ancient forests of northern Finland Greenpeace has established a "Forest Rescue Station" to stop the logging. We are also helping the reindeer herders in their fight to protect important reindeer forests, which are a basis for the traditional livelihood of the Sámi people and thus a benefit for the whole local community.

Who is responsible for the destruction?

The Finnish government continues to log these precious forests, driven by demand from the country's massive paper industry. The leading paper company, StoraEnso, is buying logs from the government's logging company for pulp and paper production, which is then exported as magazines and copy paper to the rest of Europe.

What is a High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF)?

High Conservation Value Forests contain globally, regionally or nationally significant concentrations of rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems. These forests also support communities such as the Sámi people in northern Finland.

Why do ancient forests matter? Why should they be protected?

Ancient - or old growth - forests are home of many endangered and threatened animal and plant species. They are complex ecosystems and contain the majority of land-based species on earth. Ancient forests regulate the water cycle, produce fresh air and are extremely important for the world's climate.

The last ancient forests of northern Europe combine Europe's few remaining tracts of "Taiga" or boreal forests of Scandinavia with the adjoining forests of European Russia. Together these forests, although fragmented, ensure the survival of numerous plant and animal species.

In remote areas in Northern Finland, forest areas in their natural state support also tourism livelihood and needs of local people for recreation, hunting, berry picking and other forms of forest use.

Who buys it?

Reindeer forests of Kessi for example, located at the Finnish/Russian border east of the lake Inari, have been logged several times during 2004. Greenpeace documented such logging operations run by the state-owned forest enterprise Metsähallitus in December 2004. The timber was delivered 330 kilometres south from logging site, to the pulp mill of Stora Enso in Kemijärvi .

Pulp from Kemijärvi is used within Stora Enso mills within Finland (e.g. in the Veitsiluoto mill but also abroad in several other mills belonging to the Group. Day to day products, such as magazine paper, copy paper or envelope paper, are made in Stora Enso's mills. The company exports these products to most European countries.

Why is logging in northern Lapland a contradiction to the rights of the Sámi?

In the traditional Sámi way of living, reindeer herding plays a central role. Logging of old-growth forests destroys or seriously harms the possibilities for reindeer herding. The right to herd reindeer and to preserve the Sámi culture are protected by law in Finland. According to Finnish legislation and international agreements, land use in the Sámi area must be conducted with respect to the Sámi culture, including traditional livelihoods such as reindeer herding.

For more information on reindeer herding, Sámi culture and reindeer herders demands, see

http://www.inarinpaliskunnat.org/index_en.html

or http://www.pefcwatch.org/finreport/SAMI/index.html