Point of View | Sami Oksa: Finland’s forest industry’s water roadmap can show the way for all of Europe

The impacts of climate change are increasingly visible in our daily lives.

In Central Europe, sweltering heatwaves now recur every summer, while in Finland winters are shortening and extreme weather is becoming more common. The knock-on effects are also evident in forests. In Central Europe, the spruce bark beetle can reproduce up to three times during the warmest years, and in Finland twice. Drought has intensified insect damage in Central European forests, and in Finland timber harvesting and transport are becoming more difficult as the ground frosts less reliably.

A warming climate also affects water systems. Long, hot and dry periods lower both surface and groundwater levels. Frost-free conditions allow nutrients to leach into waterways for longer periods. At the same time, improved air purification technologies have reduced sulphur emissions and thereby acidic deposition — a change that has partly contributed to the browning of Finland’s surface waters.

In this changing situation, Europe must achieve two things at once: strengthen nature’s resilience and safeguard the competitiveness of its renewable raw materials based European industries. Enhancing water protection in forestry is a concrete example of this dual task.

Finnish forest industry has taken the initiative to promote water protection through a dedicated Water Roadmap. The roadmap examines the impacts of forestry on water bodies in a changing climate and develops scenario‑based solutions that genuinely reduce nutrient and sediment loads. The work is carried out in cooperation with the University of Helsinki and leading experts to ensure that the solutions are scientifically sound and practically applicable. In a European context, this is a remarkably ambitious effort — and an example of how member states can assess and improve their own land‑use sectors.

The underlying research is encouraging. The water impacts of the forest sector in Finland are modest by European standards, and they can be reduced even further. This sends an important signal to Europe as a whole: climate, water and biodiversity objectives can be reconciled when actions are grounded in science and implemented in collaboration with stakeholders.

A significant share of Finland’s forestry‑related water load stems from historical drainage, the so‑called “drainage legacy”. Many EU countries face similar inherited pressures, whether from agriculture, forestry or peatlands. This is precisely why improving water quality requires new solutions: modern water protection technologies, site‑specific management and, above all, strong cooperation.

Finnish forest industries Water Roadmap is not just a national project. Europe as a whole needs solutions that do not pit climate goals, biodiversity and economic competitiveness against one another, but instead bring them together. The Finnish approach demonstrates that this is possible: when policy is anchored in research and decision‑making is built on collaboration, the outcome is both cleaner waters and a stronger bioeconomy.

Now is the right moment to turn this into a shared European story. Finland offers a model that the entire continent can draw upon.