Joensuu, Finland — April 2026

Winters that hover around zero leave ice on tree crowns. Branches snap. Stands thin. In Finland’s boreal forests, snow damage keeps showing up as the most severe cause of forest harm—especially in North Karelia, North Savo, Kainuu and Lapland. And as the climate shifts, that risk grows, often opening the door to insects and fungi that follow the damage. That’s the backdrop for our new study.

Finland is a forest nation. Tree-covered land accounts for about 86% of the land and underwrites everything from carbon storage and water regulation to biodiversity and livelihoods. Their resilience is national resilience. Yet the rulebook we use to manage them hasn’t really caught up with today’s risks.

What’s missing in today’s policies?

Current forest laws and strategies do many useful things—reforestation obligations, damage control, road networks, and guidance that supports sustainable use. But climate risk is mostly implicit. The framework largely assumes that business-as-usual management will see us through and leans on reactive measures after storms, droughts or pest strikes. In practice, that means we manage damage rather than reduce risk.

Our review highlights key Policy Gaps/weaknesses:

• Climate change risks are not properly addressed in the current laws.
• Most measures are reactive, not preventive.
• There is little support for ecosystem-based management.
• Incentives are missing for landowners to adopt adaptive practices.

Figure. Policy road map: transitioning Finnish forest governance to climate resilience

What would a resilient approach look like?

A climate-ready legal framework would shift the center of gravity from reaction to prevention and adaptation:

• Prevent: keep forests healthier before trouble hits. e.g., promote native species and adaptive silviculture that lowers wind, snow and pest vulnerability.
• Recover: when damage happens, move fast on clean-up, regeneration and fair compensation so losses don’t cascade.
• Transform where needed: allow room to change mixes, rotations or genetic material where sites and future climate warrant it.
• Enable: back this up with monitoring, incentives, and flexible rules so owners and managers can act early, not just after the fact.

Why it matters now?

• If the coming decades bring more frequent heavy snow loads, hotter summers, or new pest pressures, incremental tweaks won’t be enough. Embedding adaptation into law is the practical insurance policy that keeps forests delivering what Finland depends on—carbon sinks, biodiversity, clean water, wood, and well-being.

Further reading

Khanam, T., Peris-Llopis, M., Xu, X. et al. (2025). Finnish forest-related laws need to acknowledge climate change risks and integrate adaptive strategies to enhance resiliency. Communications Earth & Environment, 6, 332. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02284-3