Current issue: 58(3)

Under compilation: 58(4)

Scopus CiteScore 2023: 3.5
Scopus ranking of open access forestry journals: 17th
PlanS compliant
Select issue
Silva Fennica 1926-1997
1990-1997
1980-1989
1970-1979
1960-1969
Acta Forestalia Fennica
1953-1968
1933-1952
1913-1932

Articles containing the keyword 'EU legislation'

Category : Research article

article id 23018, category Research article
Anssi Ahtikoski, Kari Väätäinen, Perttu Anttila, Juha Laitila, Antti Mutanen, Jari Lindblad, Lauri Sikanen, Johanna Routa. (2024). The effects of the EU’s forest-related policies on harvesting costs in Finland. Silva Fennica vol. 58 no. 3 article id 23018. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.23018
Keywords: forests; scenario approach; harvesting costs; directives and regulations; EU legislation; structural systems analysis
Highlights: The EU’s forest-related policies set direct and indirect limitations on the harvesting operations and operating environment; The effect on harvesting costs of Directives and Regulations depends on the magnitude of policy implementation; In a high-impact scenario, harvesting costs could increase by as much as 18% from the current level of costs.
Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

The EU’s influence on national forest policies is growing, and the implementation of forest-related policies proposed by the Commission will affect the practice of forestry in Europe. For instance, the Nature Restoration Law sets concrete areal goals for restoring forest ecosystems and for conservation, the Deforestation Regulation requires meticulous tracking of wood’s origin, and the renewed Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) sets new criteria to sustainable forest biomass procurement. So far there have been no studies that have looked into the impacts from the economic and operational point of view. In this study, structural systems analysis was first performed to discover the relevant variables (and their functioning) associated with the roundwood harvesting operations and the operating environment. A scenario approach was then applied to capture the potential levels of implementation of the EU’s forest-related policies. Finally, using different scenarios (low-, moderate- and high-impact) and a systems analysis framework, the impact of alternative levels of implementation was quantified in terms of harvesting costs, measured in € m–3. The results indicate that with the low- and moderate-impact scenarios the harvesting costs would increase by less than 10% from the current levels in three different regions in Finland. Such an increase (less than 10%) could be tolerated over a period of a few years, but a sudden increase is likely to lead to challenges to the running of businesses. With the high-impact scenario the harvesting costs would increase by between 15% and 18%, depending on the region. This magnitude of increase (of approximately a sixth) corresponds to a severe change in the roundwood harvesting operations and operating environment.

  • Ahtikoski, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Tekniikankatu 1, FI-33720 Tampere, Finland ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1658-3813 E-mail: anssi.ahtikoski@luke.fi (email)
  • Väätäinen, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Yliopistonkatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6886-0432 E-mail: kari.vaatainen@luke.fi
  • Anttila, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, FI-00790 Helsinki, Finland ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6131-392X E-mail: perttu.anttila@luke.fi
  • Laitila, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Yliopistonkatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: juha.laitila@luke.fi
  • Mutanen, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Yliopistonkatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0533-9356 E-mail: antti.mutanen@luke.fi
  • Lindblad, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Yliopistonkatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6766-6587 E-mail: jari.lindblad@luke.fi
  • Sikanen, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Yliopistonkatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: lauri.sikanen@luke.fi
  • Routa, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Yliopistonkatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7225-1798 E-mail: johanna.routa@luke.fi

Register
Click this link to register to Silva Fennica.
Log in
If you are a registered user, log in to save your selected articles for later access.
Contents alert
Sign up to receive alerts of new content
Your selected articles