Two-thirds of family forests in Finland are uninsured, with the financial risks ignored according to the Finnish Forest Association.
A report on its website. www.forest.fi, outlines the issues with failing to correctly insure forest holdings and misconceptions of the state’s role in supplying compensation.
This includes loss of expected earnings from the potential value of storm damaged trees, which could have matured to a more valuable sawlog size, and the risks and costs of harvesting storm damaged areas.
The state will only pay minor compensation, including the cost of regeneration after natural disasters, according to the association, but actual loss through damage could run into thousands of euros. This makes insurance all the more valuable to those who may think their holding is unmarketable, the report adds.
“The real value of the forest or of the damage is not always understood when the forest is destroyed,” said Pekka Sahlman, executive director of the local forest owners’ association in Kallavesi, Finland.
