Only
about 2 % of the forests of south Finland have been protected despite
this region containing the largest number of forest-based species
in the country.
Most of the forests have now been converted to monotonous industrial
forestry. As a result, the number of species threatened in the south
has significantly increased.
Recognition
of the urgent need for greater forest protection led to the establishment
in 2000 of a working group including scientists and government representatives.
This group concluded that the state of forest biodiversity in south
Finland was inadequate and that timely and adequate protection
measures, including new protected areas and restoration plans, were
needed in all forest types to stop biodiversity loss. [1]
In the
same year a committee of interest groups, with a majority of representatives
from the state forestry administration (including the Ministry of
Agriculture and Forestry and Metsähallitus), forest industries and
forest owners, was set up by the Government and assigned to prepare
a protection programme for the area. In 2002 the committee published
its action plan, the so-called METSO programme (‘metso’ means
‘capercaillie’ in Finnish), which postponed the decision on the
need for a protection programme until 2007. It was also decided
that the next assessment should be carried out by relevant government
ministries rather than by scientists.
The METSO
programme, which has since been endorsed by the Government, includes
a small number of experimental, small-scale regional conservation
projects for the years 2003–15. In the best-case scenario, these projects
will result in the increased protection of less than 5 000 ha of forest
with current funding. This may have positive local impacts but will
have no effect on the general decline of forest biodiversity in south
Finland. The programme includes no actions to stop the destruction
of the majority of high-conservation-value forests.
[1]
Ministry of Environment 2000. Need for forest protection in northern
Finland. Finnish Environment 437.
[Slightly
modified excerpt from an NGO-publication Certifying extinction?]
