Greenpeace has claimed that the state-owned Metsähallitus recently logged in a number of areas of ancient forests in northern Lapland to supply pulp to Stora Enso and Botnia mills near Kemi, Finland.

The green lobby group claimed to have research showing that Stora Enso used timber from ancient forests to make magazine paper for a raft of the leading European publishing houses.

Greenpeace campaigner Ben Ayliffe said: “Unless magazine publishers in the UK want to be associated with the destruction of thousand-year-old forests, they should be putting pressure on their suppliers to ensure that they are not sourcing fibre from this area of Finland.”

Last Thursday (22 March), Greenpeace launched a dawn protest at the Stora Enso paper mill and Botnia pulp mill in northern Finland.

A banner reading “Stop ancient forest destruction” was raised as 40 protestors blocked the main entrances to both mills.

Kari Vainio, Stora Enso’s executive vice president of corporate communications, said: “We have informed our customers that we don’t get any deliveries from those areas. This is a very important issue for us. We will demand a thorough ecological analysis by Metsähallitus on the disputed areas.”

In a statement, Metsä­hallitus said that the level and quality of conservation in state-owned land in Lapland “is exemplary”.

It added that no harvesting was being carried out in the protected areas.