Finland’s Sustainable Growth Programme: Forestry projects
In line with the objectives of the Government Programme, the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland supports growth that is ecologically, socially and economically sustainable. Funding for the Programme comes from the one-off EU recovery package ‘Next Generation EU’ (NGEU) and, in particular, its Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), which is why the calls for projects related to the Programme are also called RRF-calls.
The programme is divided into four pillars. The first one (Pillar 1: green transition supports structural change in the economy and a carbon-neutral welfare society) includes an investment of EUR 8.5 million in projects supporting the climate change resilience and biodiversity of forestry in 2022–2025. The projects are selected through open calls for projects organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Funds are invested in development and training projects related to forestry that support climate change resilience and biodiversity. The funded projects can tackle the following issues:
- develop forest management and treatment methods that support climate change resilience and biodiversity, also taking into account the needs related to continuous cover forestry,
- improve value creation or the efficiency of the chain of forestry measures by developing new innovations that could be utilised nationally and globally, while supporting climate change resilience and preserving biodiversity, or
- promote the practical implementation of forestry practices that support climate change resilience and biodiversity through training.
Funding is granted on the basis of the Government Decree on climate change resilient measures in the land use sector, which supports Finland’s carbon neutrality target 2035. The forestry-related projects of the Sustainable Growth Programme of Finland are a part of the ‘Catch the Carbon’ programme for climate measures in the land use sector coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
The first call for projects was organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in late 2021 and the second, supplementary call in late 2022. The selected three-year projects are being implemented between 2022-2025. No further calls for projects are being planned at this stage.
For information on the calls for applications in social media, use #KestäväKasvu and #HiilestäKiinni.
