Fewer trees were cut down in Finnish forests last year, according to the Natural Resources Institute (Luke). Its preliminary data for 2023 shows that logging declined by nine percent compared to 2022, falling back to around the same level as 2020. That’s good news in terms of forest absorption of carbon dioxide. In 2021 and 2022, Finland’s land use changed from being a carbon sink to being a source of emissions… Forests are Finland’s biggest carbon sink, and logging significantly affects them. In 2020 … the forest carbon sink was more than three times as high as in 2021-22. Logging is of course one of the biggest factors influencing the carbon sink of forests. Another major factor is tree growth. Calculations of forest carbon sequestration must take into account many factors, including emissions from peatlands, the carbon sequestration of mineral soils, and the effect of temperature on these.