Roundwood removals decreased from 2018
Published : 14 Feb 2020, 22:22
Updated : 14 Feb 2020, 22:25
According to preliminary data of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), a total of 63 million cubic metres of roundwood was harvested in 2019 from Finnish forests for the forest industries.
When the nine million cubic metres harvested for energy production are taken into account, the total amount of roundwood felled was 72 million cubic metres. That was more than six million cubic metres less than in the previous year, said a bulletin from Luke.
The preliminary statistics of Luke show that in the amount of industrial wood felled in 2019 was 62.8 million cubic metres, of which 25.8 million cubic metres were logs and 36.9 million cubic metres was pulpwood. Just over 80 per cent of this volume came from non-industrial private forest.
“The volume of wood felled decreased from the record year of 2018 by nine per cent, or by 6.1 million cubic metres. The volume of logs harvested decreased by 12 per cent and that of pulpwood by seven per cent,” said Tiina Sauvula-Seppälä, senior statistician at Luke.
The total volume of roundwood felled from forests was 71.8 million cubic metres. In addition to the industrial roundwood harvested for the forest industries, the figure includes a small amount harvested for household consumption by forest owners. The figure also includes almost nine million cubic metres of roundwood harvested for energy production, i.e. for fuelwood in residential housing as well as roundwood felled for wood chips used in heat and power plants.
“The total volume of roundwood felled decreased from the previous year by 6.4 million cubic metres, or by eight per cent. That was a big decrease, but in practice, it meant returning to the level preceding the record year of 2018,” said Jukka Torvelainen, senior statistician at Luke.