Out of the three types of biodiversity indicators that Stora Enso uses, biodiversity impact indicators are reported in Stora Enso’s annual and sustainability reports, latest in the annual report 2024. These six indicators focus on monitoring the biodiversity impacts and quality of harvesting in Finland, Sweden, and the Baltics. They represent actions that are valuable for forest ecosystems and thus portray how well we mitigate negative impacts as well as maintain biodiversity in harvesting.
The 2024 impact indicator results show stable performance for all indicators compared to past years. Most of the indicators are close to the 90% target, which means that 90% of audited harvesting sites comply with the environmental standards set by the company. The ultimate goal is to reach 100% compliance for each indicator by 2030.
The data is collected from randomly selected harvesting site samples that are audited in each of the regions annually. In 2024, we audited approximately 1,000 sites in total. A representative site sample gives a good indication of the overall development areas and shows ways for improvement.
Nonetheless, we also had a severe water-related environmental incident in Finland in 2024, which was not part of the randomly audited sites. This incident shows that we still have work to do to improve, which is why water protection is one of the main focus areas in 2025, spearheaded by our new water programme in Finland. We also continue focusing on high stumps creation and ground deadwood that currently have the widest gaps to the target.
|
Indicator |
2024 |
2023 |
2022 |
2021 |
|
High stumps |
82% |
84% |
65% |
63% |
|
Ground deadwood |
83% |
81% |
82% |
94% |
|
Soil and water |
94% |
96% |
96% |
88% |
|
Prioritized habitats |
96% |
98% |
87% |
88% |
|
Tree retention |
85% |
87% |
83% |
89% |
|
Buffer zones |
93% |
91% |
93% |
- |
The data from the sample sites is reported directly from the field via a digital tool, developed by us in 2023. The tool streamlines our data collection and flow, making it more reliable and transparent, as the data flows digitally from the forest to our systems and manual work in-between is reduced. In 2024, we also finalised our indicator harmonisation across Finland, Sweden, and the Baltics, which makes data comparison and use more efficient.
As technologies advance, we can collect, harness and use more accurate data to improve our operations further and identify the needed improvement areas on a more granular level. Only by monitoring biodiversity and forestry operations regularly can we make fact-based decisions and take action on the areas that need development. The impact indicator results 2024 will be used as input for adaptive forestry actions and as part of our overall plan to strengthen forestry operations.
