Natural values|The mining company spent 10 million euros to protect the forest as compensation for the environmental damage of the planned mine.
Nearly 3,000 hectares of wilderness have been protected as a private nature reserve near the Hammastunturi wilderness in Inari.
The area is huge among private protected areas, as it is the size of Koli National Park. The area is larger than, say, Sipoonkorvi National Park.
The area is owned by AA Sakatti Mining, i.e. the Finnish subsidiary of the British mining company Anglo American. Lapland’s Ely Center has made a conservation decision in September.
New the name of the protected area, Sakati forest compensation protected areatells the reason for establishing the protected area. The mining company has protected the forest in Inari in order to compensate and compensate for the mining disadvantages caused in Sodankylä. The company is planning a Sakati mine in Sodankylä, which would be located under the protected Viiankiaava.
The mining company said in the spring of 2022 that it had bought a forest area in Inari for conservation purposes. The forest was sold by the Inari collective forest, that is, a community of almost 1,700 forest owners. The mining company paid 10.4 million euros for the area.
The mining company has previously said that it also aims to both protect and restore the bog. The mine is planned under a protected monkey swamp.
Protection decision everyone is allowed to move in the area, but making fires is only allowed in marked places and camping and other camp life require the landowner’s permission. Reindeer care is allowed.
These are the usual conditions in protected areas. But there are also a few more special rules in the protection decision.
In the protected area, hunting is allowed for members of the Inari joint forest. In addition, it is permitted to use motor vehicles to retrieve shot big game. Otherwise, motor vehicles are prohibited in the protected area.
In the protection decision it is said that the forest is a natural forest and a wilderness with significant nature values.
Purchased the area is IFL forest. The abbreviation comes from the English words Intact Forest Landscape and means untouched forest or wilderness. For this reason, large forest companies such as UPM, Metsä Group and Stora Enso have not wanted to buy wood there, as it would be against the voluntary, responsible forestry certificate.
This was a problem from the collective forest’s point of view, because forestry is meant to make money for the forest’s shareholders.
Yhteimetsä had previously offered the area to the state for protection, but received a negative decision. One of the richest people in Finland had also negotiated land deals, Ilkka Herlinin with, but the negotiation did not lead to deals.
The problem was solved for this area when the joint forest was sold to the area’s mining company.
The map below shows the areas of the Inari joint forest before the IFL area became owned by the mining company.
Inari the joint forest has somewhat similar problems in its forests also around Pasasjärvi in Inari.
There, large forest companies are careful not to buy trees from these forests, because reindeer graze in the forests and the joint forest has not come to an agreement with the local forest council on how to reconcile forestry and reindeer husbandry in the same area.
Yhteimetsä has been able to sell some logs to the local councils, as well as wood to Inari municipality’s energy company Inergia for burning in the heating boiler.
In total, the Inari joint forest has almost 20,000 hectares of land.
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