Boreal Peatland LIFE
Restoring boreal peatlands in Natura 2000 areas in Finland
The largest LIFE Nature project in Finland started in January 2010. The project led by the Natural Heritage Services of Metsähallitus aims at restoring nearly 4 300 hectares of various kind of peatlands. This five year project includes 54 Natura 2000 sites around Finland.
SEE: Results of the project 2010–2011 and actions in 2012.
Press release 11.5.2012: UPM and the Ministry of the Environment have agreed on peatland nature conservation in Central Finland. Over a half of the total protected area is included in the Boreal Peatland LIFE project.
Finland has an international responsibility for maintaining the diversity of mires in the northern boreal zone. The diversity of mires in Finland is the largest in the world compared to any other similar sized area. The large scale ditching of mires for forestry purposes in the latter part of the 20th century has had an immense degrading impact on the natural values of mires, bogs and fens.
The main aim of the project is to restore the natural hydrology of the mires by filling in and blocking the ditches and by clearing trees to recreate the landscape as it was prior to the ditching. Various mire biotopes such as aapa mires, concentric bogs, herb-rich fens as well as spruce mires and pine bogs will benefit from the restoration measures. Another key aim of the project is to increase the public awareness on the natural values of mires and to provide personal experiences from mires.
The total budget of the project is approximately 6,7 million euros of which the European Commission funds 50 %. The Natural Heritage Services of Metsähallitus implements the project in collaboration with the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Central Finland (ELY Centre for Central Finland) and the Department of Biological and Environmental Science at the University of Jyväskylä.
The address of this web page is www.metsa.fi/borealpeatlandlife
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