Finland Times

The Finnish Tornator Oyj becomes the largest private forest owner in its neighboring country of Estonia after purchasing recently 13,000 hectares of woodland in this country, according to the Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR).

Tornator grows and manages forests, selling the timber or timber rights to logging companies. It registered 1.5 million euros (1.9 million U.S. dollars) in sales last year, the ERR report said.

However, the news aroused some local arguments indicating the contrast situation in the other Baltic state of Lithuania, where even a referendum was initiated to restrict (or protect, as they say) the sale of land to foreigners.

Estonia is rich in forests - they cover almost half of the country's territory. The largest forests can be found in the North East and Central Estonia and they stretch from the north coast to the Latvian border. About 10 per cent of Estonia is a nature reserve.