Pirkko-Liisa Luhta (right), a project manager at Metsähallitus, oversaw an effort to clean up River Hukkajoki in Suomussalmi, Kainuu, on 23 August 2024. Up to thousands of endangered freshwater pearl mussels are believed to have died at the site after a forest machine serving a nearby logging site crossed the rivulet hundreds of times, silting up the water. (Hannu Huttu – Str / Lehtikuva)
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THE DRIVER of a forest machine that devastated a major population of endangered freshwater pearl mussels was following the logging plan provided by Stora Enso, reveal documents obtained by Helsingin Sanomat.
On Monday, the daily newspaper reported that it has obtained the logging plan, which provides workers serving the logging site with instructions for entering the site, the boundaries of the site and storing the harvested timber.
Stora Enso has earlier indicated that it devised the plan for the site in Suomussalmi, Kainuu.
“My understanding is that the logging plan and timber sales deal were made by our forest expert, and my understanding is that they drafted a normal logging plan in conjunction with the timber sales deal,” Janne Partanen, the head of wood supply in Finland at Stora Enso, said to Helsingin Sanomat in August.
A forest machine serving the site drove across a rivulet inhabited by freshwater pearl mussels hundreds of times, silting up the rivulet with sediment and killing up to thousands of mussels and leaving thousands more at risk of suffocation.
Police are investigating the incident as aggravated nature conservation offence.
Ingrid Peura, the director of communications at Stora Enso, on Monday declined to comment on the details of the logging plan obtained by Helsingin Sanomat. “We can’t comment on a confidential document that’s related to an ongoing investigation,” she replied in a text to the newspaper.
Helsingin Sanomat revealed on Friday that environmental considerations had largely been disregarded in the logging operation.
Stora Enso, the newspaper has learnt, issued a notification of forest use that extended all the way to the edge of the rivulet, despite a requirement to leave a 45-metre safe zone due to the endangered mussel population, and neglected to seek permission for using a nearby road that would have prevented the machines from having to cross the rivulet. The clear-cutting project was also carried out in summer, at a site the owner of which had opted not to comply with even the most lenient environmental standard for forest management, PEFC.
ELY Centres and the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) in 2021 withdrew from the forest management standard, arguing that its criteria are too lenient and the processes largely ignore science and ecology. Petri Keto-Tokoi, a lecturer in forest ecology at the Tampere University of Applied Sciences, described the standard as “greenwashing” and “public relations scam” in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat in May 2021.
The ELY Centre for Kainuu in May instructed Stora Enso and the forest owner to leave a 45-metre safe zone along the rivulet to protect the mussels and to refrain from crossing the rivulet in a way that introduces mud and sand into the water.
The rivulet was inhabited by one of the largest freshwater pearl mussel populations in Finland. The devastation was detected by sheer chance by a group of biologists who were mapping the area in August.
The rivulet was crossed in the same location also during a logging operation carried out for Stora Enso in 2012. Although the incident was detected in 2014, the ELY Centre for Kainuu did not report it as an offence despite its knowledge of the mussel population.
Stora Enso declined last week to both provide its logging plan for the site and answer most of the questions posed by Helsingin Sanomat.
An aerial photo of a clear-fell site next to a rivulet in Suomussalmi, Kainuu. The photo shows a failure to comply with instructions to leave a 45-metre safe zone along the river and to not cross the river in a way that results in mud and sand silting up the water. (Hannu Huttu – Str / Lehtikuva)
YLE: Logging in areas with endangered species is common in Finland
Forests in Finland are harvested for wood regularly in areas inhabited by endangered and protected species, reports YLE.
Finnish regulations stipulate that forest management practices should take into consideration a total of 2,600 endangered and vulnerable species, a requirement that is unrealistic if the populations are not known in advance, views Matti Koivula, a research professor at Finland Natural Re Helsingin Sanomat on 28 August.
YLE on Saturday reported that changes in forest habitats caused by the economic utilisation of forests is the primary reason for the endangerment of 28 per cent of endangered species in Finland. The endangerment of 24 per cent of endangered species, on the other hand, is caused primarily by the closing of open areas, which can have a detrimental impact on species such as drooping woodreed and lady’s-slipper orchid.
Koivula on Saturday told YLE that tensions between forest industry and nature conservation objectives will increase if logging volumes are increased.
“Logging doesn’t mesh terribly well with the demanding inhabitants of forests,” he summarised.
He added that the most significant impacts of forest management practices on endangered species are the long-term diminishing of important structural features, such as large dead trees, old trees and old forests.
“At least part of the endangerment of our species is caused by human activity,” said Koivula.
Laura Saaristo, a senior expert at Tapio, said to the public broadcaster that the forest industry is committed to maintaining and improving natural diversity. Tapio is a leading provider of forest management-related advisory and consulting services in Finland.
“The only way to do that is to take species and their habitat requirements into account when logging. Of course diversity measures are needed also in other types of land use than simply forestry,” she commented.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
