This study analyses Finnish citizens’ valuations and attitudes towards a forest conservation programme for southern Finland and the Pohjanmaa region. In particular, Finnish households’ willingness to accept expenses through increased taxation to guarantee a certain level of biodiversity conservation was investigated. Contingent valuation (CV) and choice experiment (CE) methods were applied. According to the CV results, 74% of respondents are prepared to pay for increased conservation and 16% support increased conservation but are not willing to pay for it. A further 5% are indifferent and 5% support decreasing forest conservation. An average willingness-to-pay for increased biodiversity conservation was 60-212 € per household per year, depending on the described project and measurement method. In addition to costs per household, the number of conserved biotopes and endangered plant and animal species had an effect on the probability of support for increased conservation. The conservation means also influenced choice but the effects were smaller in absolute terms than the effects of costs and effects of biodiversity.