Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sari Essayah visits Canada with a delegation of the Finnish forestry and bioeconomy actors on 24–28 November. Minister Essayah will deliver the keynote speech at the Scaling Up Bioeconomy Conference 2024 in Ottawa. Finland is the Feature Country of this year’s conference. In addition, the Minister and the business delegation will visit the province of Quebec.

Finnish forest and bioeconomy expertise are prominently featured this week at the Scaling Up Bioeconomy conference in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sari Essayah will deliver the keynote speech of the event.

“The request to give the keynote speech at the conference shows how much Finland is appreciated in the forest and bioeconomy sectors. We are very happy that there is a wide interest in this cooperation in Canada, both at the federal level and in the provinces,” Minister Essayah says.

Members of the Finnish delegation will participate in a panel with key focus on Finnish case examples and solutions in the forest and bioeconomy sectors. The delegation includes representatives of  key Finnish forest and bioeconomy companies, Natural Resources Institute Finland and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

In Ottawa, Minister Essayah will meet with federal ministers of Canada, members of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources of the Parliament of Canada and management of the Natural Resources Canada (NRC). The main topics are the outlook of and cooperation in bioeconomy, sustainable forestry and forest management.

Cooperation started in 1990s will continue

In the province of Quebec, Minister Essayah will meet the province’s management to discuss the opportunities in the bioeconomy sector. Finnish expertise in forest and bioeconomy will be showcased at Quebec Forest Industries Association and the local companies.

 “Canada is an important strategic, northern and like-minded partner for Finland. I am very happy that our cooperation in the forest and bioeconomy sectors is becoming even stronger. Both parties wish to invest in the growth of the bioeconomy and create business for companies in the sector. It is important to also promote cooperation between the Finnish and Canadian companies,” Minister Essayah says.

This visit is a continuum to the delegation to Ottawa and Nova Scotia last February, led by Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio. Between Finland and Canada there is potential for even closer cooperation  for example in forest management methods, prevention of and preparation for forest damages, new bioeconomy products, bioenergy, wood construction, and digital applications as well as education and training in the sector.

Finland and Canada also share the interest in finding solutions to climate change mitigation and preserving biodiversity. There is also strong mutual interest in strengthening contacts between the research, development and education actors.

Cooperation in the forest sector between Finland and Canada dates back to the 1990s. The countries have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed in 2019. In recent years there has been increasing cooperation also with the provinces, specificallyBritish Colombia, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Related links:

Finland and the Province of Nova Scotia increase cooperation in forest sector (Press release of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry 26 April 2024)

Inquiries

Tapio Luoma-aho
Special Adviser to Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sari Essayah
firstname.lastname@gov.fi
+358 50 472 7040

Erno Järvinen
Senior Ministerial Adviser, Head of Forests and Bioenergy Unit
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
firstname.lastname@gov.fi
+358 295 162 150