Forestry in Finland in 1937

Abstract

THE annual report of forestry activities in Finland (XVII Metsatilasto Forststatistik—Kertomus Metsa-hallinnon Toiminnasta 5, 1937. Berattelse over Forstforvaltningens Verksamhet, Ar 1937), published in Helsinki last year, sums up the work of this progressive Forest Department. The great advance made by Finland since the Great War and the position she has taken in European forestry circles may to some extent be attributed to the fact that the Forest Department had a large forest capital at its back already under exploitation. Consequently a variety of problems were presented to the trained forester, from forestry education through sylvi-cultural management and protection down to the study of utilization, the improvements possible in extraction, statistics and prices, and so forth. The forestry reforms of 1921–23 prescribed the division of the country into four districts containing ten forest inspections and ninety cantonments (subdivisions of an inspection). Each district was administered by a local forestry bureau, under whom were the inspections, each in charge of an inspector. An important outcome of a decree of July 1934 is the gradual replacement of the untrained forest guards by chefs de travail or overseers, all of whom will have received training at one of the forestry schools, of which there are six. Considerable progress has been made with working plans and maps required in connexion with their preparation—revision of these plans is undertaken every ten years. The report deals in detail with the commercial activities, since the forests play so important a part in Finnish economy, and the British market is a very valuable one. An interesting point in the report is the policy undertaken by Government of settling a proportion of the population within the large forest areas owned by the State.