Metla Forest Research Institute
The Forest Research Institute of Finland called Metsäntutkimuslaitos, or Metla for short, was a state research facility founded in 1917 under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry . Its statutory tasks were the promotion of economically, ecologically and socially sustainable forestry and timber management as well as the protection of forests through appropriate research, services and advice. On January 1, 2015, the research institute was merged into the newly established Luonnonvarakeskus (Luke) facility , the Natural Resources Institute Finland . This organization combines the activities of four previously independent institutions.
Metla is - according to the vast Finnish forest areas, which make up 86% of the national territory - one of the most important forest research institutes in Europe with an annual budget of around 40 million euros.
Metla was based in Vantaa just north of the capital Helsinki . About half of the staff was also employed here. The rest worked in regional research units.
research
Research projects were:
- Research into possible uses of wood and wood-based materials and their marketing , head of the project, which was completed in 2007, was Professor Erkki Verkasalo .
- The project Securing Biodiversity - Political Instruments and Socio-Economic Impact is currently headed by Paula Horne.
- The project cost efficiency and quality of silvicultural methods (2007-2011) is led by Juho Rantala. It is designed for the period from 2007 to 2011.
- The team around Professor Tuula Nuutinen has been working on the development of forest information systems and forest management procedures since 2007 . The project should run until 2010.
- A research task with a particularly current reference is the wood biomass project - energy from renewable resources . The research group has been dealing with the topic since 2007 and is headed by Professor Antti Asikainen . The completion of the research work is planned for 2011.
- Elina Vapaavuori has been conducting research on the fundamentals since 2007 (as of 2009). The topic to be worked on until 2011 is the functioning of forest ecosystems and the use of forest resources in the course of climate change .
- A particularly important research task for Finland is forest management on moorland . A study period of three years until 2010 was planned for 2007. The group is headed by Professor Jukka Laine .
Experimental areas
About 30,000 hectares of forest were available in Finland for the various researches . The test areas were designated in 1920 and made up almost 1 per mille of the Finnish forests. The oldest experimental forests , however, went back to the 19th century. These forest areas were managed directly by Metla until 2007, but since 2008 they have been outsourced to the Metsähallitus . The total of more than 2000 test areas provided numerous long-term information on the development of the forest from the diverse field research .
During guided tours in the research forests, visitors were introduced to the research methods on nature trails , along with their results, the tree species and other characteristics of these forests.
Web links
- Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) Metla's website
- Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) Internet presence of the successor organization Luke