Environmentalists maintain that their dispute with the state forestry organisation over the management of old growth woodland in Finland could soon be resolved.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) claims that the forestry body Metsähallitus has agreed to suspend harvesting in 400 forest areas pending assessment of their conservation status.
The WWF and Finnish Association for Nature Conservation have designated the 400 sites as “high conservation value forest”.
It is reported that Metsähallitus will now carry out further evaluation which will take several months.
“In this period no logging will occur in the identified forests, except in sites… found to contain no valuable forests,” said the WWF.
The environmentalists are also calling on Metsähallitus to help create links between old-growth forest areas which, they say, have become too fragmented.
