Guided Visit of the Korean Central Govern­mental Forestry Deleg­a­tion to Finland’s Forest Sector for Knowledge Exchange and Partner­ship Development

The Ministry of Agricul­ture and Forestry (Maa- ja metsätal­ous­min­is­teriö, MMM) and the Natural Resources Insti­tute Finland (Luonnon­varakeskus, Luke), along with related insti­tu­tions, excel­lently hosted the Korean deleg­a­tion from the Korea Forest Service, the National Insti­tute of Forest Science, the Forestry Cooper­ative, and national univer­sities in Korea. The deleg­a­tion, primarily at the govern­mental level, success­fully completed the inter­na­tional visit and gained valuable knowledge through cooper­ative efforts.

By Daesung Lee and Aliisa Pöllänen

Several events were held in 2025 involving repres­ent­at­ives from the central govern­ment, national research insti­tutes, univer­sities, and forestry cooper­at­ives. The three key events were:

1. Webinar on the Timber Supply Chain in Finland and South Korea – from forest site to wood processing factory (June 4, 2025)
2. Deleg­a­tion visits from the Organ­iz­a­tion and Manage­ment Innov­a­tion Division of KFS, Korea Forest Service (September 1 and 2, 2025)
3. Deleg­a­tion visits from the Forest Resources Division of KFS, Korea Forest Service (September 10–12, 2025)

The deleg­a­tion focused on knowledge exchange, learning about the Finnish forestry society, its strategies, laws, and policies, building strong partner­ships, and exploring new cooper­a­tion opportunities.

The first event took place on 4 June 2025: a webinar focusing on the timber supply chains in Finland and South Korea, covering the entire process from forest sites to wood processing factories.

The event featured a series of present­a­tions by experts from both countries. Senior scientist Robert Prinz from Natural Resources Insti­tute Finland (Luke) provided an overview of the Finnish timber supply chain, followed by Senior scientist YoonSeong Chang from the National Insti­tute of Forest Science (NIFoS), South Korea, who presented a case study on the timber supply chain in the Chuncheon region, Gangwon province. Research Manager Kalle Karttunen from MTK (The Central Union of Agricul­tural Produ­cers and Forest Owners) discussed private forest owner­ship and the role of regional forest manage­ment associ­ations, while Kai Merivuori, CEO of Merivuori Consulting Oy, addressed timber procure­ment in private mid-sized sawmill companies.

This event fostered knowledge exchange on timber supply chain manage­ment, highlighting simil­ar­ities and differ­ences between Finnish and South Korean forestry sectors, and identi­fying oppor­tun­ities for collab­or­a­tion in sustain­able forest resource utiliz­a­tion and forest-based industries.

The Webinar on Timber Supply Chains in Finland and South Korea (June 4, 2025).

From the Korea Forest Service (KFS), a central admin­is­trative agency under the Ministry of Agricul­ture, Food and Rural Affairs, the BIOSYS team received consid­er­able interest and multiple visit requests regarding Finland’s forestry admin­is­tra­tion and sector. Two deleg­a­tion visits from KFS took place in September, primarily targeting national forestry-related organizations.

The first deleg­a­tion, led by Deputy Director Inhyeok Yun from the Organ­iz­a­tion and Manage­ment Innov­a­tion Division of KFS, had three main object­ives for their visit:

1. Bench­marking Finland’s forest policy formu­la­tion and perform­ance manage­ment systems;
2. Studying the utiliz­a­tion of insti­tu­tional research results in forest policy devel­op­ment and refer­en­cing research and devel­op­ment cases for policy impact analysis;
3. Gathering inform­a­tion on the field applic­a­tion of perform­ance indic­ators and cooper­a­tion struc­tures between govern­ment and private sectors.

During their visit from September 1 to 2, the deleg­a­tion toured key organ­iz­a­tions including the Natural Resources Insti­tute Finland (LUKE), the Ministry of Agricul­ture and Forestry (Maa- ja metsätal­ous­min­is­teriö, MMM), and an interest organ­iz­a­tion TAPIO repres­enting farmers, forest owners and rural entre­pren­eurs. Exchan­ging exper­i­ences and inform­a­tion with these organ­iz­a­tions provided the group with valuable insights to enhance policy and manage­ment practices in Korean forestry administration.

The Organ­iz­a­tion and Manage­ment Innov­a­tion Division of the Korea Forest Service’s visit to LUKE and meeting with Principal Specialist Jutta Kauppi and Director for Customer Solutions and Inter­na­tional Relation­ships and Senior Customer Manager John Kettle (September 1, 2025).

The Organ­iz­a­tion and Manage­ment Innov­a­tion Division of the Korea Forest Service’s visit to the Ministry of Agricul­ture and Forestry and meeting with Senior Minis­terial Adviser, Head of Forests and Bioen­ergy Unit Erno Järvinen and Senior Minis­terial Adviser Tiina Rytilä (September 2, 2025).

The Organ­iz­a­tion and Manage­ment Innov­a­tion Division of the Korea Forest Service’s visit to TAPIO and meeting with Director of Customer Relations Eero Mikkola (September 2, 2025).

The second deleg­a­tion, led by Deputy Director Donghwan Gu and visiting from September 10 to 12, comprised a deputy director from the Forest Resources Division of the Korea Forest Service (KFS), a research scientist from the National Insti­tute of Forest Science in Korea, professors from univer­sities, and repres­ent­at­ives from forestry cooper­at­ives in Korea. Their primary objective was to under­stand the struc­ture of Finnish forest society and the range of govern­ment services avail­able to forest owners. They aimed to gather strategies to further develop Korea’s Leading Forest Manage­ment Complex (LFMC) project—a large-scale initi­ative managed by KFS involving private forest owner­ship units exceeding 500 hectares—by learning from Finland’s advanced forestry models.

During their visit, the deleg­a­tion toured key insti­tu­tions such as the Natural Resources Insti­tute Finland (LUKE), the Ministry of Agricul­ture and Forestry (Maa- ja metsätal­ous­min­is­teriö), MTK (The Central Union of Agricul­tural Produ­cers and Forest Owners), and the Finnish Forest Centre (Suomen metsäkeskus). They also visited LUKE’s forest exper­i­mental sites and engaged with forest managers from the Forestry Manage­ment Associ­ation (Metsän­hoitoy­h­distys, Mhy) in Päijät-Häme. Through these compre­hensive engage­ments, the deleg­a­tion gained valuable insights and exchanged knowledge on Finnish forest laws, services, provi­sion systems, inform­a­tion manage­ment, and the concept of jointly owned forests. They identi­fied important oppor­tun­ities for future collab­or­a­tion across govern­mental, regional, indus­trial, and research sectors.

The Forest Resources Division of the Korea Forest Service’s visit to LUKE and meeting with Senior Scientist and Group Manager Ville Kankaan­huhta, Research Scientist Simone Bianchi, and Doctoral researcher Lauri Männistö from the Forest Manage­ment Group of LUKE (September 10, 2025).

The Forest Resources Division of the Korea Forest Service’s visit to the forest site of the Forestry Manage­ment Associ­ation (Mhy) and LUKE’s exper­i­mental sites, guided by Research Scientist Daesung Lee (LUKE) (September 11, 2025).

The Forest Resources Division of the Korea Forest Service’s visit to the Ministry of Agricul­ture and Forestry and meeting with Senior Minis­terial Adviser, Head of Forests and Bioen­ergy Unit Erno Järvinen (September 12, 2025).

The Forest Resources Division of the Korea Forest Service’s meetings with Research Manager Kalle Karttunen and Advisor for EU and Inter­na­tional Affairs Maria Pohjala from MTK, and with Senior Specialist in Forest Owner­ship Jukka Matil­ainen from Finnish Forest Centre and Head of Land Consol­id­a­tion Kalle Konttinen from the National Land Survey of Finland (September 12, 2025).

The BIOSYS North Karelia Inter­na­tional Growth Ecosystem is run by Natural Resources Insti­tute Finland / Luonnon­varakeskus as a project lead, the Regional Council of North Karelia Pohjois-Karjalan maakun­t­aliitto, Univer­sity of Eastern Finland and MKN Itä-Suomi | Rural Women´s Advisory Centre (RWAC) of Eastern Finland. The project is funded by Renewing and Competent Finland 2021–2027, EU Regional and Struc­tural Policy Programme’s Just Trans­ition Fund – JTF, and Regional Council of North Karelia.

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For more information:

Daesung Lee, [email protected]
Naomi Moriyama, [email protected]