Finland is committed to a new coalition of active forest countries, which promotes stopping, protecting and restoring deforestation in the world’s forests. At the same time, the political dispute about the EU regulation is swelling at home.
Finland pushes ambitious climate and nature goals into international forest policy.
At the soon-to-be-started UN climate meeting, Finland plans to appear as part of a new group of ambitious forest countries.
The group advocates stopping deforestation, but also forest protection and, among other things, their restoration, according to a press release published during the UN General Assembly in September.
The new group of countries is named \”Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership\”.
At the same time, some government parties have taken a negative stance domestically on the regulation aimed at improving the EU’s biodiversity.
On Thursday, the annual climate report was also announced, according to which Finland’s carbon neutrality goal threatens to get out of hand due to the collapse of carbon sinks in forests.
The coalition of ambitious forest and climate countries will meet for the first time in a little over a week at the UN climate conference in Egypt.
Now, from the more than 140 countries that have signed, around 20 active ones have been gathered, which are supposed to put the goals of the Glasgow Forest Initiative into practice.
– When initiatives are taken, they often remain only at the level of the initiative. Now we are creating a practice where we discuss forest issues every year and really take them forward, says Wahlberg.
Wahlberg says that Finland was asked to participate because it is considered ambitious in forestry matters and a \”superpower\” in forestry.
In addition to Finland, key European forest countries such as Germany and France are included. Wahlberg does not want to name other countries yet.
In the future, it is planned to choose chairpersons for the group from the countries as well.
– Deforestation occurs in Finland and other European countries, but the globally significant emissions come from deforestation in southern countries, he says and refers to Brazil, for example.
According to Kalliokoski, the coalition also in some places pursues similar goals as, for example, the disputed EU restoration regulation.
The EU wants the member states to increase the restoration of forests, swamps and waterways to their natural state.
– On a global scale, the goals are the same, we talk about the same processes, that is, the reasons, says Kalliokoski.
He emphasizes that the initiative of the UN climate conference does not legally bind countries, unlike, for example, the EU regulation will later do.
However, the bulletin published by the Forest and Climate Group states, among other things, that the committed countries must \”lead by example and set national goals.\”
So is Finland a credible example country, when strengthening the diversity of Finland’s own forest nature does not seem to work for a large part of the parliamentary parties?
– International initiatives are political commitments. Now we have supported these goals at such a high level as from the President of the Republic. Credibility is pretty weak if you can’t take care of your own yard, Minister Maria Ohisalo tells Yle.
– You have to be able to say that yes, we are ready to fix things in our country too, he adds.
The minister says that he is surprised by the discussion about the EU restoration regulation.
So far, Finland has already committed to the UN Convention on Biodiversity, which aims to stop the loss of nature by 2030. In addition, Finland supports the goals of the EU’s biodiversity strategy.
– It seems as if this has never been heard of in Finland. These are not new things, says Ohisalo.
Ohisalo will travel there only later.
Yle did not receive an answer from the Prime Minister’s staff as to whether Marin intends to represent Finland at the first meeting of the new forest partners.
According to Ohisalo, the representation has not been decided yet.
SDP, represented by Marin, is one of the parties that announced their opposition to the EU Commission’s proposal to restore it in its current form.
The positions of the ruling parties were torn apart in the votes of the environmental and economic committees. In them, the view has been stricter than the government’s position initially presented to the parliament.
In Glasgow, President Niinistö’s speech drew criticism when he told about Finland joining the deforestation initiative.
The president praised Finnish forestry for its sustainability and stated that Finland’s example shows that economic exploitation of forests is possible at the same time as positive climate effects.
At that time, the information about the decline in the growth of Finnish forests had just come in. Another reason is the increased logging.
Niinistö spoke at the UN General Assembly in September. Now he emphasized in his speech that Finland is committed to stopping the loss of nature.
– We are committed to safeguarding the global biodiversity agreement –. This means actions to protect, restore and preserve land and sea areas worldwide, the president said in his speech.