Committed to a net positive impact on biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variability of life on the genetic, species, and habitat levels. It is fundamental to the planet and people, maintaining a natural balance and healthy ecosystems that supply oxygen, clean air, water, and food.  

Hand in hand with sustainable forestry 

Biodiversity in production forests starts with sustainable forest management that safeguards forest health and productivity as well as protects and enhances nature. In parallel, forests with species-rich habitats are more adaptable to a changing environment as well as more resistant to various disturbances, such as storm or insect damages. 

Biodiversity of forests and plantations is a cornerstone of a successful bioeconomy. This demands open stakeholder dialogues, collaboration, and sustainable forest management, addressing production and biodiversity management side-by-side. In our own forests, with suppliers and in the supply chain, we work to be a leader and ensure sustainable practices using externally assured traceability systems and forest certification processes, in addition to our own programmes. 

Read more about sustainable forestry.

Taking the lead

We have established a comprehensive Biodiversity Leadership Programme to ensure we drive biodiversity in an integrated way through adapted actions, the latest technologies, research collaborations, and cross-organisational work.

Our company-wide programme includes four streams:

Monitoring biodiversity

Stora Enso has laid out three types of science-based biodiversity indicators to holistically monitor different aspects of biodiversity. By monitoring these indicators and our progress, we are able to develop and adapt our practices, actions, and biodiversity management further.

In Northern forests, our indicators monitor the impacts of our forestry operations as well as the conditions for forest biodiversity: Biodiversity impact indicators track the quality of operations and ensure we preserve biodiversity in harvesting. Long-term biodiversity indicators follow developments across forest landscapes and generations in our own forests. Biodiversity indicators for plantations monitor development of biodiversity in tree plantations in Brazil and Uruguay.

Read more on our indicators and progress. 

Working in partnership

We cannot do all this alone: businesses, organisations, and academia need to come together to truly have an impact. To this end, Stora Enso is involved in several collaborations for nature. For instance:

• We have a partnership with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to advance our biodiversity framework. It allows forecasting biodiversity impacts, managing production and biodiversity in parallel, and adapting operations towards a net positive goal.
• We are a founding member of the International Sustainable Forestry Coalition, launched in 2023 to support dialogue around forestry and renewable materials.
• We have a research programme with SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) to gain new research around sustainable forestry and wood-based materials. The focus areas include biodiversity, growth and yield, remote sensing, life cycle analysis, and forest communication.
• We collaborate with NGOs, like WWF Finland with whom we are involved in water-related initiatives: “Forests and Waters” promotes water conservation measures and “For Forest Streams” aims restore forest stream conditions for freshwater species.