Lessons from Finland for Uganda’s forestry sector

Tree-planting is one of the farming activities which is progressing in Uganda with mainly farmers growing imported species like pine and eucalyptus although venturing into growing the indigenous species is also a viable project for improved household income.
In Uganda, most individual farmers are concentrating on agroforestry farming, where they tend to grow local tree species either for fencing off their fields to protect their crops from being destroyed by animals or grow them and plant other crops in between.
But the public forest system is mainly managed with the National Forestry Authority in conjunction with the communities who reside near these forests.

Encouraging
However, there are lessons for Ugandan tree planters to learn from the forestry and tree management farming system in Finland more especially where their government is encouraging individual farmers to engage in this activity as their source of income.
There are about 20 indigenous tree species in Finland, the most common ones being pine (Pinus silvestris), spruce (Picea abies) and birch (Betula pendula and B. pubescens).
Usually two or three tree species dominate a forest. Pure pine stands are found in rocky terrain, on top of arid eskers and on pine swamps.

Distribution
Natural spruce stands are found on richer soil and birch is commonly found mixed with other tree types but it can occasionally form pure stands.
About half of the forest land area consists of mixed stands. Rarer species are found mostly as solitary trees. The south-western part and the south coast of Finland are touched by a narrow zone growing oak, maple, ash and elm species.
Prof Liisa Tyrvainen, a researcher at The Metla Finnish Research Institute, estimates that private persons own over 70 per cent of the Finnish forests where 47 per cent is occupied by pine and one in five of the national population belongs to a forest-owning family.

Cornerstone
The average size of a private forest holding is 30 hectares with everyone tending and felling his or her own trees, which are often growing on several scattered plots but extensive uniformly-managed areas of forest belong to a few individuals.
Family forestry is the cornerstone of Finland’s forestry with three quarters of the wood raw material used by industry coming from private forests.
She said ownership is divided over a broad spectrum of the population because every fifth Finnish family owns a forest of some kind. The interest that private owners take in their forest holdings goes well beyond income from selling wood.

Strongly emphasised
For many, the home forest is their childhood landscape, which they would like to preserve in as unchanged a state as possible. Other important values are biodiversity and the berries, mushrooms and game that the forests provide.
Values other than wood production have likewise begun to be strongly emphasised in national policy on forests. Policy makers are urging for industrial products such as cellule plastics as well as cooking oil
The list of endangered species in Finland contains about 1,700 plant, animal and fungus species, of which 138 are feared extinct.
The director general of the Finnish Research Institute, Hannu Raitio said the forest industry production increased by nearly five per cent in 2000 and production rose to record levels in every main category.

Family operated
Plywood production showed the fastest growth, rising by over eight per cent compared with the previous years. But the current production totalled about 1.5 million cubic metres and the annual growth rate is about 50 million cubic metres.
Private forest owners number more than 900,000 but counting their family members, about one million Finns can be estimated to be forest owners either directly or indirectly.
Finnish forestry is commonly termed family forestry or small scale forestry run by ordinary families, focusing on maintaining the chances of future generations to use the forests.
The climatic condition being temperate enables individual farmers to mainly engage in tree planting other than growing crops, which is not the case in Uganda.

More land
Ms Diana Ahebwe, the Uganda country representative for Miti magazine, which exclusively covers the sector, the forest farming system here seem to be picking up especially with those farmers who are growing imported tree species such as pine and Eucalyptus.
“A good number of farmers have realised that growing the improved tree species of pine and Eucalyptus gives them good returns. Secondly, these species can be harvested after two years mainly for fire wood as you wait for others to grow much longer for timber use. Many farmers also practice agro forestry where they intercrop mainly the indigenous tree species with other crops such as coffee, beans and groundnuts among others,” she explained.
The statistics show that in Uganda, we need 150,000 hectares of land to grow trees to meet the overwhelming demand but the land coverage apparently is 50,000 hectares.
Farmers growing different tree species have the advantage of selling their grown up trees as transmission poles to power supply companies with each costing about Shs100,000.

Incomparable
She says there are a number of farmers who are interested in venturing into tree farming but they lack the required land. Most farmers who are growing trees acquired land in form of leases but land lease has been put on hold.
Farmers growing different tree species usually purchase the seedlings from the National Forestry Authority (NFA) but there are some who multiply the seedlings for commercial purposes. However Uganda’s forest coverage is incomparable to that of Finland because while NFA endeavours to plant trees, it fails to maintain them. Also, the population pressure has led to deforestation, which is also on the increase.

Export markets
Most of these trees are planted on degraded land and are left to compete with invasive species.
Ms Ahebwa, however, advised farmers to grow both exotic and indigenous trees because harvesting differs and as the imported species mature, they can be harvested for sale while waiting for the natural species to grow.
In northern Uganda, most farmers are engaged in growing the teak tree, which takes about 15 to 20 years to mature. It attracts export market in India and Kenya.

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