Of all the endangered forest species, 12 per cent live in sunlit habitats. Only a few thousand hectares of representative sunlit habitats remain in Finland. They are of greater importance for forest biodiversity than their small surface area would appear to warrant.
To its owner members, Metsä Group recommends nature management on slopes featuring the properties required of habitats for sunlit species. For the most representative sunlit slopes, we recommend voluntary protection. The decision about forest management is always made by the forest owner.
How to identify a sunlit slope?
Sunlit slopes are found along ridge formations, where the soil often consists of water-permeable sand and gravel. Facing south or west, they are warm and dry habitats with widely contrasting conditions. Sunlit slopes are naturally dominated by pine. They are open and have a thin, uneven layer of humus. These are properties that are also sought through nature management.
The species typically found on sunlit slopes are threatened by forest overgrowth, eutrophication and the absence of forest fires and other disturbances. Nature management aims to boost the natural properties of sunlit habitats, as well as increase the number of sunlit species and attract them back to the site.
Among other things, the management of sunlit slopes means making the site more open and breaking the soil in areas at risk of overgrowth. We recommend that any regeneration felling on sunlit slopes is carried out as seed-tree or group selection cutting, and that the surface of the mineral soil should be uncovered.
We implement the principles of regenerative forestry through nature management on sunlit slopes
Sunlit slopes and herb-rich forests are the most significant habitats in terms of forest biodiversity as they are home to more than half of Finland’s endangered forest species. Appropriately managed, both profitable forestry and nature management can be carried out in them. Nature management on sunlit slopes and in herb-rich forests is one of many ways in which Metsä Group implements the principles of regenerative forestry in Finnish forests.
Metsä Group’s mill areas often include sunlit areas as sunlit species also thrive in “substitute” habitats such as roadsides and storage areas. Using nature management for sunlit areas in the mill environment is part of Metsä Group’s regenerative land use principles, which guide our efforts to support biodiversity in the built environment.