Impact of fire on Finnish forest in the past and today.

Nearly every forest land in Finland has been burnt down by a wildfire at least once during the past 400â500 years. Slash and burn cultivation (1700â1920) was practised on 50â75 percent of Finland's forests, while prescribed burning (1920â1990) has been applied to 2â3 percent of the country's forests. Because of land-use changes and efficient fire prevention and control systems, the occurrence of wildfires in Finland has decreased considerably during the past few decades. Owing to the biodiversity and ecologically favourable influence of fire, the current tendency is to revive the use of controlled fire in forestry in Finland. Prescribed burning is used in forest regeneration and endeavours are being made to revert old conservation forests to the starting point of succession through forest fires.

Abstract licence: CC BY-SA

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