Finland · climate and land use
Finland's land used to soak up carbon. Now it gives it off.
Finland has about as much forest as it did 35 years ago. Yet its land no longer takes in more carbon than it gives off. Six places show why.
vizmaya desk · 12 October 2026
Start here
What is a carbon sink?
Trees pull carbon dioxide out of the air as they grow. Soil can hold carbon too. When land takes in more than it gives off, it is a sink. When it gives off more, it is a source.
In this story a minus number means the land took in more. A plus number means it gave off more. The unit is million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
Our reading
This part is our interpretation, not a measured fact. The trees are still there. What seems to have changed is how much wood leaves the forest, how fast the trees grow, and how much carbon leaks from drained peat soil. Studies point to these causes. They do not agree on how to split the blame.
Point 2
But the carbon account flipped
In 1990 the land took in 13.5 million tonnes more than it gave off. In 2024 it gave off 9.8 million tonnes more. The 2022 and 2025 bars are early estimates.
Source: Statistics Finland greenhouse gas inventory. Bars before 2018 come from an older release than the later ones, so the dashed line is a break, not a smooth trend.
Point 1
The forest did not shrink
The wood standing in Finland's forests is about 2.6 billion cubic metres. The forests grow about 103 million cubic metres a year.
Sources: World Bank / FAO forest area share; Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).
Point 3
Even one year's answer keeps moving
Counting carbon in living land is hard, so estimates get corrected. The 2024 number alone moved by 3.7 million tonnes between two releases.
Source: Statistics Finland releases. The 6.9 for 2023 is our own sum from the 2024 release (9.8 minus 2.9), so treat it as approximate.
The route
Same forest, different carbon account. To see why, we follow six places, from a research tower in the south to reindeer country in the far north.
The six places, in story order
Positions are approximate. Map outlines: Natural Earth via world-atlas.
Route table
- 1Hyytiälä: a forest research station. Documented.
- 2Linnunsuo: a former peat mine, now being restored. Documented.
- 3Äänekoski: a very large pulp mill. Documented.
- 4The felling belt: seven southern and central regions. Documented.
- 5Helsinki: where the national numbers are made. Contested.
- 6Inari: Sámi reindeer land. Contested.
Documented means we could confirm it from sources. Contested means credible sources disagree.
Documented
1 · Hyytiälä: someone is measuring
In southern Finland, a research station called SMEAR II has measured the air above a pine forest since 1995. Its tower is 128 metres tall. The trees around it were 62 years old in 2024.
Stations like this let scientists check what a forest really does with carbon, tree by tree and year by year.
Documented
2 · Linnunsuo: drained peat leaks
Peat is half-rotted plant matter that builds up in wetlands. Drain it and it dries out and gives off carbon. At Linnunsuo in North Karelia a peat mine leaked acid into a river, and fish died in 2010 and 2011.
Mining stopped. In 2017 the nature group Snowchange bought the 110 hectare site with a 75,000 euro loan, to restore it. That account comes from Snowchange itself, and we found no measured carbon result for the restored peat.
Million cubic metres of energy peat. Vapo delivered about 9 in 2018. Neova produced under 1 in 2021. These are different measures, so compare with care. In early 2022 Neova said it would restart some energy peat after Russian wood imports stopped. Peat-rich soils are about 10% of Finland's farmland but 50 to 60% of farm emissions (European Environment Agency).
Documented
3 · Äänekoski: a mill that eats wood
This pulp mill opened in August 2017 and reached full speed a year later. It makes 1.3 million tonnes of pulp a year and uses 6.5 million cubic metres of wood a year, mostly from Finland.
When it opened, it was expected to add about 4 million cubic metres, around 10%, to the wood Finland uses for pulp. New demand means more trees leave the forest.
Documented
4 · The felling belt: close to the limit
The Natural Resources Institute (Luke) says the forests grow about 103 million cubic metres a year. In 2024 about 73.7 million were cut for stemwood. That is 92% of what Luke estimates can be cut each year.
In seven southern and central regions, cutting was above the sustainable level in 2019 to 2024. Cutting is only one part of the account, and soil and peat count too. Luke does not give one clean split of the causes.
Million cubic metres a year. Source: Luke.
Contested
5 · Helsinki: the experts disagree
The national carbon numbers are made in Helsinki. For the whole land sector they are clear: a net source in 2018 and in 2021 to 2024. But on forests alone, two official reports point different ways.
Statistics Finland
Forest land was a small net sink of 0.1 million tonnes in 2024.
Government climate report, 2025
Forests have been a net source since 2021.
We could not settle this, so we show both. We did not read the March 2026 release.
Contested
6 · Inari: who decides about old forest?
Over 90% of the Sámi Homeland is state land run by Metsähallitus. It says it does no felling there without the approval of the local herding cooperative. Herders dispute that.
On 24 June 2025, 33 members of the Muddusjärvi Reindeer Herders' Cooperative filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee. Finland's reply was due on 15 October 2025. We did not find it, and the review was still going in 2026. Tiina Sanila-Aikio, a Skolt Sámi herder, told the Barents Observer: "we don't have any other option left".
Timeline
How the account changed, 1995 to 2025
Spacing is not to scale. Sources: Luke, Statistics Finland, Snowchange, Metsä Group, Barents Observer.
Then and now
1990
−13.5
took in more than it gave off2024
+9.8
gave off more than it took inMillion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, land sector. Source: Statistics Finland.
Finland in numbers
73.7%
of land is forest (2023)92%
of the estimated yearly wood cut is used (2024)6.5m
cubic metres of wood a year at one mill2×
how fast Finland warms compared with the worldSources: World Bank, Luke, Metsä Group, University of Eastern Finland and Finnish Meteorological Institute.
Three ways to tell it
Who sees what
State and industry
Forests are well managed. They grow more than is cut, and the wood stock is large. (Luke; a forest-industry author, not independently checked.)
Sámi herders
Cutting old forest takes away winter pasture and breaks promises about their rights.
Scientists
The numbers keep being revised, and the causes are mixed. A review of 36 studies found the research split into separate silos (Nyyssönen, 2024).
A common mistake
You may read that Finland is the fastest warming place on Earth. It is not. It is warming about twice as fast as the world average. One broadcaster corrected its own headline.
More than 2°C from 1847 to 2013 (University of Eastern Finland and FMI). Source: Yle.
The point
Finland did not lose its forests.
Forest is still about 73.7% of the land. Yet the land went from taking in 13.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 1990 to giving off 9.8 million in 2024. And that number itself moved by 3.7 million between two releases.
Sources and claims log
How we checked
We logged 28 claims. 21 are verified, though one of them (that Metsähallitus does no felling without approval) has a disputed part. 2 are contested (the sign of the forest result, and the date of a UN decision on mining permits). 5 could not be confirmed and are left off this page: exact warming figures from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, dates of earlier Inari disputes, a claim that felling was cut by a quarter, a company forecast for 15,000 hectares, and a growth figure for Lapland.
Gaps: map positions are approximate; the 1990 figure moved between releases and we did not pull the very latest one; we did not read the original Sámi or Finnish texts; the UN complaint has no outcome yet; no one has measured the carbon result of the restored peat.
Where the numbers come from (publisher pages; exact releases are in our research file): Statistics Finland · Natural Resources Institute Finland · World Bank · European Environment Agency · ICOS · Finnish Meteorological Institute · Snowchange · Metsä Group · Barents Observer · Yle · UN Human Rights Office
Photo credits. All photos are from Wikimedia Commons. Author and licence are listed on each file page:
Same forest, different carbon account
Finland has about as much forest as it did in 1990. Yet its land now gives off more carbon than it takes in. Six places explain why.
First, what is a sink?
A sink takes in more carbon than it gives off. A source does the opposite. Minus numbers mean sink, plus numbers mean source.
The forest did not shrink
Forest covered 71.8% of the land in 1990 and 73.7% in 2023. The standing wood is about 2.6 billion cubic metres.
But the carbon account flipped
In 1990 the land took in 13.5 million tonnes more than it gave off. In 2024 it gave off 9.8 million tonnes more.
Even one year's answer keeps moving
The 2024 number changed by 3.7 million tonnes between two releases. Counting carbon in living land is hard.
Six places, in story order
From a research tower in the south to reindeer country in the north. Filled circles are documented. Rings are contested.
1. Hyytiälä: someone is measuring
A research station has measured the air above a pine forest since 1995. It gives scientists a direct check on what forests do.
2. Linnunsuo: drained peat leaks carbon
Drained peat dries out and gives off carbon. A former peat mine here is now being restored. No carbon result for the restored peat has been measured yet.
3. Äänekoski: a mill that eats wood
One pulp mill uses 6.5 million cubic metres of wood a year. New demand means more trees leave the forest.
4. The felling belt: close to the limit
In 2024 the cut was 92% of what Luke estimates can be cut each year. In seven southern and central regions it went over.
5. Helsinki: the experts disagree
Two official reports disagree on whether forests alone are a sink or a source. We show both.
6. Inari: who decides about old forest?
Herders and the state disagree about felling on Sámi land. A complaint is before the UN Human Rights Committee.
Thirty years on one line
From the first tower measurements in 1995 to the 2025 complaint and report. Then 1990 and 2024 side by side.
Finland did not lose its forests
It lost the surplus. The trees stayed, and the carbon account did not.
How we checked
28 claims logged. 21 verified, 2 contested, 5 left off the page. Photo and source links are here.