Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland

Beyond timber: how experts envision the future of non-wood forest products

Gesche Schifferdecker on 10 December, 2025

by Gesche Schifferdecker, Jukka Tikkanen, Mikko Kurttila, and Rainer Peltola

When you explore a Finnish forest with experts like Jukka Tikkanen, Mikko Kurttila, and Rainer Peltola, you quickly realise that the forest economy is far richer than timber alone. Between the trees and under the canopy lies a quiet abundance: branches from Spruce trees, sap from birches, mushrooms, resin, berries. And now, more than ever, these non-wood forest products (NWFPs) are gaining attention in forest planning.

A productive bilberry shrub (photo: Rainer Peltola) — A productive bilberry shrub (photo credit: Rainer Peltola)

“Integration of NWF products into forest planning really depends on the product. If the growing stock data is up-to-date, the best production estimates come from products collected from trees – spruce shoots, resin, sap, birch leaves”, says Jukka Tikkanen, Research Director at University of Eastern Finland. Digital tools like Finland’s Metsään.fi would like to allow landowners to explore these potentials alongside timber data: an inclusion of NWTPs was technically piloted, but is not mainstreamed yet.

However, for berries and mushrooms, Jukka stresses the need for fieldwork: “General berry and mushroom estimates give a good idea, but business calculations need field investigations.”

Over the past years, his team has piloted natural product-oriented forest planning, which is a hands-on process combining terrain assessment with dialogue between the planner and landowner. “It’s meant to help landowners explore NWFPs as a complementary business. Timber doesn’t have to be the whole story”, emphasizes Jukka.

Collecting data (photo credit: Rainer Peltola)

What a forest can offer: business planning

For Mikko Kurttila from Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), the first step for forest owners is simple but often overlooked: “Owners need to consider what their forest properties can produce. Some may have birch suited for sap production. Others have young spruce stands perfect for collecting shoots in spring, or branches for the Christmas season. Older pines or spruces can offer resin.” He also stresses the limits set by Everyone’s Rights: “In general, owners should focus on NWFPs that are outside everyone’s rights. In Finland, this normally excludes berries and most mushrooms.”

Some forest owners have explored alternative ventures – like cultivating medicinal mushrooms. “People are curious about cultivating pakuri, but infecting substrates is expensive, and you must wait about ten years – I think that’s very risky”, says Mikko. For him, realistic business planning is essential: “Owners need proper calculation – labour, external services, opportunity costs, and expected revenue flows with different future prices and yields. The challenge is that advisors for this don’t really exist. Timber services do, but NWFP services don’t.”

The forest’s hidden harvest

While Jukka and Mikko focus on planning and business, Rainer Peltola (LUKE) has spent over a decade improving our understanding of NWFP production, especially berries.

“For more than ten years, berry yield forecasts have used a partial citizen-science concept. We’ve made progress in collecting observations, and data quality has steadily improved”, explains Rainer. The biggest breakthrough came when weather data was integrated into the forecasting system: “The single biggest step forward has been combining weather data with berry observations – modelling the weather phenomena that influence yields. We now have models predicting pollination success and ripening of bilberries, lingonberries, and cloudberries.”

These models feed into Luke’s berry map service, where users can explore forecasts like pollination success for bilberry in 2025 on a 5×5 km grid. “We hope this helps pickers and berry companies plan their operations – guiding pickers and planning logistics”, summarizes Rainer.

A more diverse forest future

Taken together, the insights from Jukka, Mikko, and Rainer paint a clear picture: forests hold tremendous and partly untapped value – but only if we know how to read it, measure it, and plan for it. As Jukka concludes: “Fully integrating timber and non-wood forest products would make forestry more sustainable – and our landscapes richer.”

And perhaps that is the shift underway: a forest economy increasingly rooted in everything the forest quietly offers – season after season, year after year.

Lapland’s Forest Resources: An Untapped Economic and Cultural Asset

Shanqing Gao on 21 March, 2025

Blogpost by Mikko Kurttila and Esa Huhta

Finland’s forests are more than just a source of timber—they are a vast natural pantry brimming with wild berries, mushrooms, and other non-wood forest products (NWFPs). Covering 75% of the country’s land area, these forests offer an abundance of resources that remain largely underutilized. In Lapland, where pine, spruce, and birch dominate the forested landscapes, nature’s hidden riches hold both economic and cultural significance. In Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland, TRANSFORMIT’s Finnish Living Lab is located, and for the International Day of Forests 2025 we looked deeper into the role that non-wood forest products play for local communities, cultural heritage, tourism, and economic development.

Each year, between 500 and 1,000 million kilos of wild berries—mainly bilberries and cowberries—ripen across Finland’s forests. Yet, only about 10% are harvested. The numbers are even lower for mushrooms: out of an estimated 1,000 million kilos, less than 1% makes it into kitchens or markets. Despite this, foraging is deeply embedded in Finnish culture. More than half of Finns collect berries, with the rate soaring to 78% in Lapland. The traditional practice is supported by Finland’s “Everyone’s Right,” allowing people to forage for personal or commercial use, except for certain products like mosses and woody plant parts, which require landowner permission.

Beyond food, these natural products have growing value in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and craft industries. Active compounds extracted from berries and plants are increasingly used in supplements and health products, adding to their economic potential.

Figure 1-2: Typical NWFPs from pine forests of Lapland: Boletus and cowberries. Photos: Erkki Oksanen, LUKE

Reindeer: Lapland’s Cultural and Economic Icon

Another pillar of Lapland’s natural wealth is reindeer husbandry, a practice that spans centuries and remains vital to local communities. Covering 36% of Finland’s land area, reindeer herding generates an estimated one billion euros annually in direct and indirect economic benefits. Reindeer are not just an economic asset but also a cultural symbol, especially for the indigenous Sámi people.For visitors, reindeer tourism is a major draw. From sleigh rides through snowy landscapes to hands-on experiences with herders, the demand for authentic encounters is growing. Tourists are also showing interest in traditional reindeer crafts, fueling a resurgence in indigenous artistry and working methods.

Figure 3: Reindeers are abundant in Lapland. They have many roles: they are source of forest food and they have an impact on the other forest foods as they use them as forage. Photo: Erkki Oksanen, Luke.

Forest Management and the Future of Lapland’s Natural Resources

Most of Finland’s forests are actively managed for timber production. However, forestry practices impact the diversity and availability of forest foods. Traditional even-aged forestry, which involves clear-cutting and replanting, favors lingonberries, raspberries, and some mushroom species. Meanwhile, continuous cover forestry (CCF), which avoids clear-cutting and allows forests to regenerate naturally, creates better conditions for bilberries.

As demand for natural products rises, balancing forestry with the provision of NWFPs is becoming increasingly important. With sustainable management and greater awareness, Finland’s forests could provide even more economic opportunities while maintaining their ecological and cultural heritage. This is the approach TRANSFORMIT’s Living Lab in Lapland is further exploring, and in the next years we will share more insights about the impacts of adapted management strategies on both the provision of NWFPs and local traditions.

Figure 4: Various different NWFPs occur in different stages of forest rotation in even-aged forest management. For CCF, the occurrence is different and needs more research.