A successful seminar to ”The Four Pillars of Sustainability, Economic and Social Pillars in the Focus”.

Tuesday, June 14 , 2022 1942

This year the members of the Union of the European foresters were welcomed by their Finish colleagues. The UEF member organizations METO and LOIMU organized the XXIV UEF Governing council meeting in 2022. This time the meeting took place in Tuusula a historically and culturally famous region in Finland from 9^th to 12^th of June.

The meeting started with a professionally prepared International Seminar dedicated to ”The Four Pillars of Sustainability, Economic and Social Pillars in the Focus”.

The seminar was hosted by Haltia - The Finnish Nature Centre, Nuuksio National Park on 10th of June 2022.

The topic was introduced by Petri Sarvamaa, MEP, who also made the link with the New European Forests strategy. (The overview is available here.).

The role of forest sector in the Finish society was presented by Erno Järvinen – Head of the Forests and Bioenergy Unit at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Finland.

Mr. Järvinen made a short overview of the Forest and forestry in Finland, presented the share of forest and food sectors in the Finland’s bioeconomy. He also made a brief overview of the Forest policy in Finland and the National forest strategy targets to sustainability. He also underlined that a balance between the different dimensions of sustainable use of forests is needed and important.

Ms. Kristiina Vuopala, Manager, Corporate Relations at Metsähallitus presented the structure of Metsähallitus the state-owned enterprise that produces environmental services for a diverse customer base. She also presented the Metsähallitus’ vision and main purposes to foster the value of nature and shared wealth in a responsible manner across generations.

The finish Forest-based industry and the sustainable solutions to global challenges was presented by Karoliina Niemi, Director, Forest Affairs at the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. She underlined that the forest industry is Finland's most important industry, and it generates wealth in Finland. The markets of finish wood products are global as the share of the value of Finland's total exports of goods is 19%. Mrs. Niemi said that forest-based material technologies solve global problems - towards a renewables-based economy as the success is supported by the megatrends.

After the Finish input, presentations from UEF Member organizations were made. Representatives from Poland, France and Turkey shared their understanding for the four pillars of sustainability and especially the economic and social one.

The seminar was moderated by Pasi Puttonen, Professor of the University of Helsinki.

At the end of the Seminar Michael Diemer offered the speakers UEF gifts as a sign of gratitude for the high level seminar, and the excellent sharing of thoughts, ideas and practice.

All presentations are available at: https://european-foresters.eu/meetings/gcm/95,6.

UEF Presidency