Suomussalmi mussel destruction | University researcher criticizes Stora Enso’s report: “Not enough”

Forestry company Stora Enso has promised to change its operating methods due to the events in Hukkajoki. However, the described measures are not enough, says the biodiversity researcher and university lecturer Panu Halme from the University of Jyväskylä.

Halme demands clearer actions from Stora Enso to revive the raw stock also outside of Hukkajoki.

In connection with Stora Enso’s logging, a gross nature conservation crime is suspected to have occurred in Hukkajoki in Suomussalmi. It is suspected that thousands of extremely endangered river pearl mussels, i.e. sculpins, died in the incident.

Stora Enso said on Friday that he had completed his internal investigation into the events at Hukkajoki. The company said in its press release that it will take new measures, the aim of which is to ensure the flow of information and compliance with the instructions in the future.

Halme criticized Stora Enso especially for the inadequacy of the measures aimed at reviving the crude stock.

“It is not enough that Stora Enso restores and compensates for damages in Hukkajoki. Räakku is a very slow-growing species, and now thousands of individuals have died. Stora Enso needs to tell us if they are ready to finance restoration and conservation measures at another desolate site,” says Halme.

According to Halmee, restoration measures elsewhere than Hukkajoki would make the raw stock increase better.

In other words, Stora Enso could commit to an ecological compensation procedure, where the harm caused to biodiversity is compensated by increasing diversity elsewhere.

Stora Enson However, according to Halmee, the new additional measures introduced are good. He is satisfied, for example, with the forestry company’s intentions to develop its information systems to provide automatic monitoring and alarms.

“Then, for example, the machine of a logging subcontractor can light up an alarm light if it is in the protection zone of a rough deposit,” says Halme.

However, Halme needed more concrete information on some of the measures that Stora Enso had mentioned. The company says, for example, that it is increasing resources for the planning and monitoring of logging, but does not say how large the increase in resources is.

Company in his press release, he also said that he would start the development of the forestry water program in Finland. According to Halmee, this is positive.

“The management of water hazards has been a blind spot in Finnish forestry for a long time. Very little attention has been paid to it.”

However, Halme criticized the reasons given by the forest company for the development of the new program. Stora Enso’s press release says that the events in Hukkajoki have shown the need to pay special attention to water bodies.

“Researchers have practically been shouting for the last ten years that the water problems of forestry must be addressed. Now this reasoning by Stora Enso seems rather childish and naive. It’s as if we hadn’t known about these water hazards for a long time,” says Halme.

Halme reminds that the legal responsibility for the Hukkajoki case ultimately rests with Stora Enso, even if problems had also occurred in other parts of the subcontracting chain.

“What kind of responsibility this leaves for, for example, the contractor or the driver of the work machine, will probably only become clear after the police investigation.”