Finland’s National Forest Programme 2015 was adopted as a Government Resolution on 28 February 2008. It aims to increase the welfare of Finnish citizens through the diverse use of forests in compliance with the principles of sustainable development.

The programme was drawn up in broad-based collaboration with interest groups steered by the Department of Forestry of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and with support from the National Forest Council. The proposals of the interim report of the working group chaired by Esko Aho published on 15 February 2008 have also been taken into account.

The underlying idea in the programme is that forest-based manufacturing and service production can be expanded while securing the social acceptability, economic viability and ecological, social and cultural sustainability of the forest sector. As production in the forest sector must be market-oriented and based on customer needs, the private sector has a vital role to play. It is the task of the public sector to create such preconditions that forests can be managed in a competitive way. The purpose of the National Forest Programme is to increase welfare from diverse forests. The vision, or target state, of the programme is set for 2015, when Finland is a world pioneer in sustainable forest management, the competence of the sector has been refined into new competitive products and services, the use of domestic wood has increased significantly and forest biodiversity has improved.