diff --git a/src/backends/wrappers/extrae/extrae_wrapper.cpp b/src/backends/wrappers/extrae/extrae_wrapper.cpp
index 45fe235976f72d6aface796daf5dc8de624aec03..735d87f89bb381bda5ffd3acacb21ab259cfa1c4 100644
--- a/src/backends/wrappers/extrae/extrae_wrapper.cpp
+++ b/src/backends/wrappers/extrae/extrae_wrapper.cpp
@@ -105,7 +105,12 @@ void ExtraeWrapper::Finalize() {
     delete[] routine_c_names;
   }
 
-  if (did_init_extrae_) {
+  // We finalize depending if the use has defined the variable, otherwise we
+  // finalize extrae only if we had to initialize it.
+  bool have_to_finalize_extrae =
+      finalize_extrae_.getValue().value_or(did_init_extrae_);
+
+  if (have_to_finalize_extrae) {
     // Assumption is that if we needed to initialize the lib we also need to
     // Finalize it
     Extrae_fini();
diff --git a/src/backends/wrappers/extrae/extrae_wrapper.hpp b/src/backends/wrappers/extrae/extrae_wrapper.hpp
index 1849c1d6df043c5e75181467fb3a8e3eb9b7632b..6fd0ce59681f4249b65b676c4d1980f821f1dc8e 100644
--- a/src/backends/wrappers/extrae/extrae_wrapper.hpp
+++ b/src/backends/wrappers/extrae/extrae_wrapper.hpp
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 #include <optional>
 #include <string>
 #include <unordered_map>
+#include <utils/environment_variable.hpp>
 
 #include "extrae_types.hpp"
 
@@ -20,6 +21,9 @@ class ExtraeWrapper {
   std::unordered_map<extrae_type, value_map_t> type_to_value_map_;
   std::unordered_map<std::string, extrae_value> string_to_value_;
   bool did_init_extrae_{false};
+  EnvironmentVariable<bool> finalize_extrae_ = EnvironmentVariable<bool>(
+      "CALL_EXTRAE_FINALZIE",
+      "Enable it to tell neSmiK to call Extrae_fini upon finalization.", false);
 
   extrae_value getValueByName(extrae_type type, const std::string &name);