Finnish-Russian Forest Summit promotes collaboration between the two countries

A total of about 250 representatives of the government, business management and education and research institutes from Finland and Russia have been invited to the meeting. The aim is to enhance the opportunities for collaboration and business as well as investments in bioeconomy and forest sector in general. The three main themes of the Summit are: wood in innovative ecological building, bioeconomy, and forest policy.

Finnish-Russian cooperation in the forest sector has long traditions. Thanks to the abundant forest resources, both Finland and Russia have excellent opportunities to become pioneers in bioeconomy. Reaching the target calls for systematic investments in research, innovation and creation of new business models. Maintaining competitiveness is a high priority in all these efforts.

Global challenges such as climate change and depletion and rise in the prices of fossil raw materials increase the demand for renewable biomass. Forest-based bioeconomy offers solutions to meet these challenges. Finland and Russia share an interest in developing business that is based on the boreal forest resources. The Forest Summit provides a practical venue for advancing this work.

The previous Summits were held in Moscow in 2002, Helsinki in 2004 and St Petersburg in 2009.

Further information at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry:
Director-General Juha Ojala, tel. +358 295 16 2415, forename.surname@mmm.fi
Ministerial Adviser Tatu Torniainen, tel. +358 295 16 2162, forename.surname@mmm.fi