Jointly owned forests are controlled jointly by the estates and are used to practise commercial forestry. Jointly owned forests are established to reduce the fragmentation of forests and create larger and more efficient and profitable forests. There were a total of 594 jointly owned forests in Finland at the start of 2023. The smallest of these is less than 20 hectares, while the largest, Kuusamo jointly owned forest, is nearly 100,000 hectares.
Although the majority of jointly owned forests, particularly large ones, are in a specific area, the estates that make up a jointly owned forest can also be in different municipalities.
Joint forest ownership
Adding your forest estate to a jointly owned forest is a good way to organise forest ownership. Partners in a jointly owned forest enjoy advantages that owners of smaller forest estates do not. The partners in a jointly owned forest elect an administrative committee to take care of matters related to the forest. The committee oversees the interests of partners and is responsible for important decisions related to the jointly owned forest.
Managing larger forest estates as a single entity provides significant scalability benefits. Jointly owned forests are established to reduce the fragmentation of forests, create larger and more efficient and profitable forests and reduce the costs of forest management. For example, the ability to mark larger areas for felling at once generally fetches a better price for the timber. A jointly owned forest offers more regular income, lower risks and more professional forest management.
For a passive forest owner, joining a jointly owned forest is an option worth considering.