UPM doubles deadwood in its forests

 Thursday, September 29, 2022

UPM has established a goal to double the present level of deadwood in its commercial forests, which is approximately five cubic metres per hectare, to 10 cubic metres per hectare. The target for deadwood in UPM’s protected areas and commercial forests is 20 cubic metres per hectare in locations where a specific nature management goal has been established. UPM seeks to diversify the deadwood in the forest by including more standing and ground deadwood of various species that have decomposed. This goal goes beyond simply increasing the amount of deadwood.

Committed to climate-positive forestry and improving biodiversity

The new goals are a component of the UPM Forest Action program’s Forest Responsibility initiative. In 2018, UPM adopted the goal of producing high-quality wood raw materials more effectively while also boosting biodiversity in its Finnish woodlands. Comparing commercial and natural forests allow researchers to gauge biodiversity. The amount of deadwood in these two types of woods clearly distinguishes them from one another, according to studies. This is just one sign of UPM’s efficacy in boosting biodiversity; other metrics include the quantity of broadleaved trees and the number of protected areas. Based on information from the National Forest Inventory (VMI) of the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (Luke) for woods held by UPM, the amount of deadwood in UPM’s forests has been calculated. Luke will study the buildup of deadwood and how it affects biodiversity.

“More than a fifth of Finland’s forest species depend on deadwood at some point in their lives. It is therefore natural to set an ambitious target for the amount of deadwood in commercial forests in order to increase biodiversity. In order to ensure sustainable sourcing of wood raw material in the future, we need to safeguard biodiversity in many ways”, says Tuomas Kara, Environmental Manager at UPM Forest.

By preserving existing deadwood and leaving retention trees as future deadwood, the present forest management principles accommodate for increasing the amount of deadwood. Deadwood accumulation is also facilitated by buffer zones around water bodies and regions that are fully off-limits to commercial activity. In conjunction with experts, UPM intends to conduct additional study and modelling to determine how these metrics may be further altered or enhanced, according to Kara.

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Tags: biodiversity, Deadwood, Forestry, UPM, woodworking, woodworking and manufacturing, woodworking industry, woodworking UK