International and EU forest affairs

International and EU commitments and agreements related to forest and environmental policy have significant impacts on the Finnish forest sector and wood processing industry.

Key themes of international forest policy in the recent decades include ways to promote sustainable forestry and halt biodiversity loss, protection of the diversity of forests and nature, verification of sustainability in the management and use of forests, climate change mitigation, bioenergy, fight against illegal logging and the trade associated with it, and good governance.

Finland is active in international forest and environmental policy

The most important international forest policy processes and agreements include the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD), Forest Europe processes, and work on the forest sector in the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Finland’s accession to the European Union in 1995 meant that the EU rules related to forests had to be taken into account in the national legislation. The EU does not have a common forest policy similar to the common agricultural policy, but there are forest-related issues included in many other sectoral policies of the EU.

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EU and international affairs