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Balancing conservation and economic use
Stora Enso's ecological landscape plans strive to balance the sustainable use of forests with conservation measures. This method is applied on leased land as well as on the company's own land. In Sweden, ecological landscape planning covers a total area of 1.3 million hectares – 84% of Stora Enso's productive forest holdings. Ecological landscape plans, based on key biotope inventories, have been drafted or approved for 98% of this area, and plans for the remaining sites will be ready by 2003.
There has also been progress with the ecological landscape planning of Stora Enso's forest holdings in Finland. Six new plans covering a total area of 23 500 hectares were started in 2001. A special joint planning project has been set up in Ruokolahti in southeastern Finland to test an optimising method developed by the Finnish Environment Institute to find and preserve the most ecologically valuable sites.
The ecological value of Stora Enso's forest holdings in Finland were inventoried over the period 1995–1999, and the results should be fully assessed by the end of 2002. Stora Enso Metsä applied for official protection of an area of 881 hectares in the Koitere Islands in North Karelia. Negotiations with the environmental authorities concerning the extension of national conservation programmes in Stora Enso Metsä's forest holdings are currently continuing.
In Canada, the Long Term Plan for 607 000 hectares of licensed Crown land and 25 000 hectares of company-owned land was completed and submitted for approval. The plan uses ecological landscape planning, and incorporates the criteria and indicators of Sustainable Forest Management defined by the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers.
The annual green audit of Stora Enso Port Hawkesbury Woodlands Unit's operations showed compliance with key wildlife conservation standards in 2001. The audit team included forestry and biology representatives from the provincial forest authority and the local aboriginal conservation institute as well as the company.
In Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, Stora Enso is participating in key biotope inventories with local environmental authorities and NGOs.
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