PRESS RELEASE BY THE SAAMI COUNCIL 7 June 2007

ITALIAN ETHICAL FUND EXCLUDES STORA ENSO BECAUSE OF INARI WOOD

Stora Enso's purchase of wood from Saami reindeer grazing areas in the
Inari area in Upper Lapland has prompted an Italian Ethical Fund –
Banca Etica – to exclude Stora Enso from its ethical investment
portfolio. Banca Etica made this decision based on the exclusion of
Stora Enso from the Ethibel Pioneer Index. Ethibel is an independent
consultancy agency for Socially Responsible Investors and the Ethical
Pioneer Index only includes the 'absolute pioneers in sustainable
business' . Ethibel has confirmed that the exclusion of Stora Enso
from the Ethibel Pioneer Index is because of Stora Enso's involvement
in contraversies in Upper Lapland.

- We took the Stora Enso issue to Ethibel in November 2005 and met
with Ethibel's ethical analyists in Brussels. We are very pleased with
Ethibel's decision, says Pauliina Feodoroff, President of the Saami
Council. At the same time we want to commend Stora Enso for deciding
to no longer purchase timber from the Inari area. Still, the decision
by Ethibel demonstrates that any company that logs in forests
important to reindeer husbandry, or that purchases products deriving
from such areas, will be held accountable for breaching ethical and
sustainability principles. The same goes for any other kind of
resource exploitation in Sápmi. The Saami Council's ambition is to
continue to highlight these kinds of breaches by companies. We will
not tolerate the destruction of areas important to the Saami
traditional livelihoods. We are determined to bring these kinds of
breaches to the attention of national and international tribunals, to
the customers of companies, to Socially Responsible Investors, to
asset managers and to ethical analyists invovled in the assessment of
a company's ethical and sustainability performance, concludes
Feodoroff.

Meanwhile, the Finnish state and its logging enterprise,
Metsähallitus, continue to contribute to the destruction of Saami
reindeer husbandrly. For the last year and a half, Metsähallitus has
refrained from logging in key winter reindeer herding pastures in
Inari, respecting a decision by the UN Human Rights Committee in
November 2005, calling on Finland to refrain from logging in the
Nellim area in Inari. Nevertheless, Metsähallitus resumed logging in
the Inari area again on the 14th of May, 2007 in the forests of Kessi
wilderness in Hannunkotavaara, which is in the Paatsjoki reindeer
herding area. In doing so, Metsähallitus has completely ignored the
objections of the local Saami reindeer herders.

The Saami Council is extremely disappointed that the logging in the
Inari area has resumed. The Saami Council finds it suprising that
Finland, through Metsähallitus, has resumed the loggings at the same
time as the market has labelled the loggings as unethical.

- Metsähallitus is clearly aware that purchasing products from the
Inari area is deemed unethical by the outside world. This is evidenced
by the fact that despite several inquires, Metsähallitus refuses to
reveal the buyer of the wood, says Feodoroff.

The Saami Council would like to encourage the new Minister for
Agriculture and Forestry - Sirkka-Liisa Anttila- to solve this
conflict situation in a constructive way. Metsähallitus
representatives have themselves admitted several times that they
cannot solve the situation with the reindeer herders because
Metsähallitus does not have the mandate to lower logging quotas. This
mandate is in the hands of the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry.
It is therefore the responsibility of the new Finnish Government to
solve this issue.

For more information:
Pauliina Feodoroff, President, +358 40500 41 45
Mattias Åhrén, Head of the Human Rights Unit, +47 47 37 91 61