After the previous network meeting in 1996 the Finnish legislation on both forestry and nature protection has been renewed. The respective Acts came into force from the beginning of 1997. Both of them emphasize biodiversity and ecological aspect. Genetic diversity is not explicitly mentioned, but it is considered to be a component of biodiversity.

A proposal for the national strategy of conservation of forest genetic resources has been compiled in the Finnish Forest Research Institute. The draft has been submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which had ordered the document. The proposal lists 15 native and 2 introduced tree species that should be included. Secondly it describes several in situ and ex situ methods that can be applied. The actual proposal shows by species which methods be applied in each case, as well as the targets in terms of numbers of trees and areas needed. It also gives a time schedule until 2005, the division of work among organization, and finally the estimated costs of the implementation.

Even though the proposal has not yet been handled and approved in the Ministry, it is in fact followed. As for Picea abies no new in situ reserves have been registered since 1996; there are 8 gene reserve forests with the total area of 1326 ha. Long term breeding populations, which bridge gene conservation and breeding, are being compiled by breeding zones.