UPM has been striving towards its target of improving biodiversity in Finnish forests during the past years. Increasing deadwood is key in achieving this goal. This is why UPM will begin a transplantation project of rare and threatened wood-inhabiting fungi in co-operation with Natural Resources Institute Finland and the University of Helsinki.
“This is a completely new and a globally unique way to protect biodiversity”, says Timo Lehesvirta, Sustainable Forestry Lead at UPM. The volume of decaying wood is the biggest difference affecting forest species between sites reserved for wood production and natural forests. A quarter, i.e. approximately 5000, of forest species in Finland live on deadwood. Most of them are fungi and insect species. “The mycelia of fungi are grown in petri dishes. The mycelia are transplanted onto wooden pegs planted during the growing season to naturally developed deadwood and to deadwood made for the project”, says Timo Lehesvirta.
You can read the full press release here.