Objective
To head off this threat, the LIFE project is to acquire, by means of purchase or land swapping, up to 2000 ha of land to create a forest preserve. Around the conservation area, transition zones will be delimited in which the forest may be exploited in a sustainable manner, through forest management plans drawn up in cooperation with landowners. Such agreements on how forests can best be used in the interests of both conservation and the local community as their economic resource, are still a novelty in Finland.
This will be far from straightforward. Because of the significant local opposition to conservation and the pressures in favour of intensive forestry, a special target of the project will be public information. Yet the mere implementation of this project will already give a very strong signal that the EU supports the conservation of the old-growth forests in Finland. To help conservation across the Russian border, where the stakes are even higher, part of the LIFE project budget is to be used to draw up a boreal forest inventory for adjoining Karelia.
Finland is renowned as a land of forests, but only 3-4% is natural forest which is not earmarked for industrial timber production. Among these, the exceptionally well-preserved old-growth forests in the Kuusamo region are possibly the most valuable, with some individual pine trees over 600 years old.The Kuusamo forests are classified as western taiga (a priority habitat type under Annex I of the Habitats Directive) and are cris-crossed by other priority habitats such as undisturbed aapa mires, calcareous fens and bog woodlands. They also shelter endangered priority species (Annex II Habitats Directive) such as the bear (Ursus arctos), the wolverine (Gulo gulo), the wolf (Canis lupus) and the flying squirrel (Pteromys volans).
Pressure to begin logging these forests has become acute since 1994. The local population is split between pro- and anti-logging factions. Part of the area is under temporary protection but this expires in 1997. There are even greater expanses of these undisturbed western taiga forests across the Russian border in Karelia, but recently Finnish logging companies have been moving in there too.
Topic(s)
Data not availableCall for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
90101 Oulu
Finland