Minister Stefan Wallin spoke out in an open letter in response to published statements by Risto Mustonen, the vice-president of the forestry group of Finnish environmental group Nature League.
Mr Mustonen had accused Finland of breaking international agreements by allowing Metsähallitus to continue logging in Lapland.
In his letter, Mr Wallin backed up a report by Metsähallitus on the protection of forest in Lapland. He said the report showed 500,000ha of the productive forestry land in the disputed logging areas were under strict protection – a protection rate of 51%.
He said that logging by Metsähallitus was carried out in an open process of natural resource planning in which all stakeholders participated.
Mr Wallin said Nature League had not evaluated the significance of the protection network in operation and, as a result, its campaign created “false assumptions” among the public and abroad.
