Malahvia: State enterprise destroys Natura 2000 -protection area
The Finnish state owned logging company Metsähallitus again started logging the Malahvia wilderness area in late March this year despite complaints and protests by the locals and NGOs.
Malahvia old-growth forest area is situated in north-eastern Finland, by the Russian border. The forest area, some 4000 hectares, includes unditched bogs, streams, lakes and ponds. Rare and declining, wood-dependant plant and animal species are common in Malahvia. Some of the species that make their home in the Malahvia forest are already endangered and still more are about to become endangered. Malahvia is partly protected in the Natura 2000 -programme.
The dispute of the fate of Malahvia started already in the last century. Since then, negotiations and loggings have been on and off. In spring 2003, a little over 3000 people sent letters to the three biggest customers of Metsähallitus - Stora Enso, UPM and M-Real - asking the companies not to buy pulp and timber coming from this forest destruction. It helped for that year, but now the logging continues.
Metsähallitus justifies the logging in the Natura 2000 -protection area by saying it is for scientific purposes, that the aim is to mimic the effects of natural disasters like storms and forest fires in a natural forest. The NGOs claim that this sounds like "scientific whaling": there is no such a storm that delivers the logs from the forest to a pulp mill. The already rare natural forests should be left outside logging, and the effects of forestry and also forest restoration should be researched in managed forests.
Malahvia old-growth forest area is situated in north-eastern Finland, by the Russian border. The forest area, some 4000 hectares, includes unditched bogs, streams, lakes and ponds. Rare and declining, wood-dependant plant and animal species are common in Malahvia. Some of the species that make their home in the Malahvia forest are already endangered and still more are about to become endangered. Malahvia is partly protected in the Natura 2000 -programme.
The dispute of the fate of Malahvia started already in the last century. Since then, negotiations and loggings have been on and off. In spring 2003, a little over 3000 people sent letters to the three biggest customers of Metsähallitus - Stora Enso, UPM and M-Real - asking the companies not to buy pulp and timber coming from this forest destruction. It helped for that year, but now the logging continues.
Metsähallitus justifies the logging in the Natura 2000 -protection area by saying it is for scientific purposes, that the aim is to mimic the effects of natural disasters like storms and forest fires in a natural forest. The NGOs claim that this sounds like "scientific whaling": there is no such a storm that delivers the logs from the forest to a pulp mill. The already rare natural forests should be left outside logging, and the effects of forestry and also forest restoration should be researched in managed forests.
Activists from the Finnish Nature League and Greenpeace demonstrated against the logging in the logging site in Malahvia. Metsähallitus then called the police to guard the destruction of this valuable forest. Two activists were fined, and the logging continued.
posted by Editor at 11:54 AM
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