Network of strictly protected areas is continuously expanded

Since the 1970s, several protection programmes focusing on the protection of forest environments have been implemented in Finland, including the national parks and strict nature reserves programme, the European Union's Natura 2000 programme, and the conservation programmes for shorelines, herb-rich forests, mires, glacifluvial esker formations, wetlands rich in bird life and old-growth forests. Setting up a programme of this type means that areas to be protected under them are marked on the map. Implementing the programme means that an act or a decree is passed to set up a national park, a strict nature reserve or other protected area on the areas marked. In general, the state also acquires ownership of these areas, but private protected areas are also possible.

The implementation of the programmes is still under way. In 1994 the Government passed a decision-in-principle, according to which an annual allocation of €84 million will be set aside to implement the programmes, until the year 2006. At that point, the extent of areas protected under the programmes would include some 2.9 million hectares.

Setting up a protected area does not always entail a total prohibition of commercial use: in the protected mire areas, only the disturbance of the water balance of the soil is prohibited; the conservation programme for shorelines prohibits construction along the shoreline and limits the forestry use of shores; and the conservation of glacifluvial esker formations only protects the gravel deposits in the eskers. On the other hand, the Forest and Park Service has autonomously decided to use forestry to derive funds for the protection of areas under its own management which come under the mires and shorelines conservation programmes. In addition, large areas of restricted forestry use have been set up in northern Finland by virtue of the Act on Wilderness Reserves.

The Nature Conservation Act also identifies habitats to be protected. These include natural woods of hardwood species, hazel woods, common alder woods, sandy shores in their natural state, coastal meadows, treeless or sparsely wooded sand dunes, juniper meadows, wooded meadows and prominent single trees or groups of trees in an open landscape.

19. Level of strict protection by vegetation zone, state of implementation of nature conservation programmes, 1 January 2002.

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