28/05/2025
How do you operate a modern forestry business and increase biodiversity at the same time? We discussed the issue with Juha Hakkarainen and Sami Veijalainen from Davvi Metsä Oy, a modern forestry forerunner.
CapMan Natural Capital’s Davvi Metsä Oy is a natural capital company and the owner of nearly 40,000 hectares of sustainably managed, well-growing forest in the regions of Lapland, North Ostrobothnia, and Kainuu, Finland. Davvi’s business model and culture are responsive, cooperative, and proactive.
“Our vision is to search for and actively create new opportunities out of our forest,” says Juha Hakkarainen, CEO.
Davvi produces high-quality wood raw materials. In addition, the company identifies and enables opportunities for green transition projects aimed at mitigating climate change. In the area of wind power, Davvi has partnered with Neoen, one of the world’s leading independent producers of renewable energy.
Davvi’s third service pillar focuses on working together with local stakeholders to create more opportunities for nature tourism, outdoor activities, and leisure living, contributing to social well-being.
The company is part of CapMan Natural Capital’s portfolio and is owned by Dasos Timberland Fund II SICAV-SIF. CapMan expanded into natural capital by acquiring Dasos Capital in early 2024.
Regenerative forestry creates more profit and increases biodiversity
Davvi’s goal is to look to the future as a forerunner in modern forestry. This means systematic regeneration, timely and effective management and felling, and selecting the right tree species for each location.
The company works closely with Metsä Group, a Finnish forest industry group, and is a member of Metsä Group’s FSC® forest certification group (FSC-C111942). All of its forests are FSC® and PEFC certified. Davvi is also a member of an optional Metsä Group Plus Service, a forest management model that promotes increased biodiversity.
“When managing our forests, we leave a lot of retention trees and protective thickets, while also creating high biodiversity stumps”, Hakkarainen explains.
Protective thickets are small clusters of vegetation that provide food and shelter for animals such as birds and game, thereby supporting the habitats of forest-dwelling species. A high-biodiversity stump is made by cutting the tree at a height of 2–4 metres. These stumps increase the amount of standing decaying wood in forests, benefitting wood decay organisms.
Metsä Group pays an additional bonus per hectare for regeneration felling carried out according to the Metsä Group Plus service’s terms.
Keys to modern forestry
Sami Veijalainen, Partner at CapMan Natural Capital and Chair of Davvi’s Board, believes that the key to modern forestry lies in balancing financial viability and sustainability. Veijalainen has over 25 years of experience in private equity and forest investments.
CapMan Natural Capital is CapMan’s newest investment strategy, focusing on natural capital investments. It aims to maximise returns from improved, diversified forest assets while also maintaining and enhancing forest volumes and biodiversity.
“Lately, investors’ expectations towards forestry have changed,” states Veijalainen. “They still want strong returns but they also value and increasingly demand benefits such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity enhancement. We report to them, and therefore we must also meet their expectations.”
Modern forestry also involves active cooperation with officials, such as the Finnish Ministry of the Environment.
Davvi adheres to the EU’s Nature Restoration Regulation. This new, continent-wide regulation sets binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems, particularly those with the greatest potential to capture and store carbon. EU countries are expected to submit their National Restoration Plans to the Commission by mid-2026.
Local footprint and nature conservation areas
Most of Davvi’s forests have deep historical roots in the region. Locals and visitors have been hunting, trekking, and berry-picking for hundreds of years on land now owned by the company. In March 2025, Davvi established three nature conservation areas in Lapland. Together, the sites in Kemijärvi, Sodankylä, and Salla cover more than 160 hectares of protected land.
The notably large 100-hectare Ruopsanaava area in Kemijärvi has been accepted into the Helmi Habitats Programme 2021–2030, led by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, which aims to strengthen Finland’s biodiversity. The new private nature reserve in Salla borders Salla National Park and is based on an agreement between Davvi Metsä and the municipality of Salla.
“Social sustainability is an important value for us. In Lapland, natural experiences support the well-being of both local communities and tourists, and the demand for tourism is rapidly growing,” says Veijalainen.
“As with green transition projects, we actively identify and provide our land for nature conservation,” Hakkarainen continues.
New nature conservation areas also contribute to a price premium for the company through FSC® accreditation, which requires 10% of a company’s forests be designated as nature conservation areas.
Veijalainen and Hakkarainen have both worked in the forestry industry for more than twenty years. They have witnessed firsthand the world-class quality of northern forests.
“There is no other raw material like wood. We believe that the competition for forests will only intensify in the future,” Hakkarainen concludes.