Improving the state of biodiversity is one of the most important challenges for the future. Businesses and citizens do not yet have comprehensive tools to nurture biodiversity. In addition to existing means of developing diversity, new market-based tools are needed to integrate diversity work into day-to-day operations. 

MTK wants to be a pioneer in diversity work and will launch the luontoarvot.fi service in early 2022. The English version of the service is published at naturevalues.fi. The service promotes opportunities for businesses and citizens to improve the state of biodiversity. Luontoarvot.fi is used to create a Finnish market for natural values. Forest owners have different use objectives in connection with their forests, and luontoarvot.fi expands the forest owner's opportunities for the commercial utilization of their forests, says Marko Mäki-Hakola from MTK. 

Tools to promote diversity are currently being widely discussed both internationally and in Finland. However, voluntary and market-based models are not yet widely available. There is also a lot of debate about ecological compensation for human damage to nature. Ecological compensation offers a concrete opportunity to bring new resources to nature work, but also requires the development of compensation marketplaces to succeed. 

The luontoarvot.fi service is expected to be a joint project between different actors in Finland. MTK invites actors to participate in service development work.  

The future service may promote the establishment of private nature reserves or, for example, the development of trade in landscape valuables. Luontoarvot.fi also offers a good platform for piloting ecological compensation. By bringing the service also in English with naturevalues.fi, EU will be able to follow MTK's initiative to develop the natural value market. MTK encourages the EU to promote the new market-based models instead of over-regulation, Mäki-Hakola says. 

MTK's 300,000 members work for nature every day. Luontoarvot.fi/naturevalues.fi brings an opportunity for agricultural and forestry entrepreneurs to expand their operations more widely into diversity services. The service will be announced in early 2022. 

More information: 

Marko Mäki-Hakola, Director of Forestry, +358 40 502 6810 

topics: publications