Metsähallitus

Metsähallitus (Finnish), Forststyrelsen (Swedish), "Administration of Forests," is a state-owned enterprise in Finland. The tasks of Metsähallitus are to manage most of the protected areas of Finland and to supply wood to the country's forest industry. Metsähallitus employs approximately 3,000 people. The company administers some 120,000 square kilometres of state-owned land and water areas, which is about 35% of Finland's total area. Its tasks are divided into business activities and primarily budget-funded public administration duties. Separate business units have been established for different activities.

Metsähallitus’ public administration duties involve, among others, managing nature conservation and hiking areas, control of hunting and fishing rights and promoting conservation and recreational use of State lands and waters.

Land area 9 132 000 ha, water areas 3 414 000 ha, in total 12 546 000 ha.

In 1542 Gustav Vasa, the King of Sweden, which at that time also included Finland, proclaimed all uninhabited wilderness areas in his kingdom as belonging to God, the King and the Crown, thereby marking the beginning of state land ownership.

By the beginning of the 19th century, Finnish forests were already in full use. Until that time, forests were mainly used for slash-and-burn agriculture and to produce wood tar, an important export product in those days. Tar burning, however, began to dwindle in the beginning of the 19th century, while at the same time the needs of the sawmilling industry increased.

In the mid-19th century wood use was so widespread that officials were concerned about the disappearance of Finland’s forests. In 1851 a strict forest law was passed, and a provisional national board for land surveying and forest management was established to monitor compliance and minister to the state’s lands. The history of the national forest and park service, today’s Metsähallitus, began in 1859 when Czar Alexander II signed a declaration on the founding of a forest management institution. Its area of operations covered state lands that were named crown parks, but monitoring private forestry, at least nominally, was also a part of the forest management institution’s tasks.

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