Conservation|The protection of streams was removed from the Nature Conservation Act in a vote where some members of the coalition voted against their own position. The matter was promised to be fixed, but no action has been taken.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
The government has not taken steps to improve the protection of streams and springs.
The coalition supported the parliament’s binding statement on the protection of streams.
The voting error had the effect of removing the protection of streams from the Nature Conservation Act.
The government has not started preparations for the legislative change.
The government does not during his more than one year of work, has taken steps to strengthen the protection of streams as required by the parliament.
The change demanded by the Parliament would also be a correction for the work accident that happened in December 2022 to some representatives of the coalition, such as For Petteri Orpo. The protection of the streams was removed in a vote that included a nature conservation voting mockup.
Shortly after the vote, the coalition supported a statement in which the parliament required ensuring the protection of certain aquatic habitat types “as soon as possible”.
The Ministry of Justice confirms to HS that, however, in August 2024, the matter has not been assigned to anyone’s work assignment and preparations have not started.
Current Prime Minister Orpo and a few other representatives of the coalition voted in December 2022 accidentally in a different way than they intended in the vote on amending the Nature Conservation Act.
In the vote, the protection of streams, springs and lime ponds was removed from the package already agreed upon by the governing parties.
Behind the removal was the ruling party center, which broke the agreement reached by the government as the elections approach.
The center justified its position with the property protection of forest owners. The center no longer wanted streams, springs and limestone ponds to be added to the list of natural habitats protected by the Water Act.
The then Prime Minister Sanna Marin and the Minister of Finance Annika Saarikko were photographed in Parliament on Wednesday, December 2022, when the reform of the Nature Conservation Act was softened in the votes. The center led by Saariko broke away from the agreement already reached by the government.
Orpo would have liked to vote for the protection of streams, but he voted against it. The confusion was caused by a change in the voting order.
Right after the vote, Orpo asked for an entry in the minutes that he had mistakenly voted differently than he wanted. The members of the coalition also requested the same entry Sari Sarcoma and Timo Heinonen.
According to HS’s information, in addition, at least one coalition member accidentally voted against his real position. The party suspected that there may have been others who voted incorrectly. The voting result was tight: only six votes would have led to a tie.
It is possible that the wrong button presses decided the case against the protection of streams, springs and lime ponds.
The stream meandered through the forest in Pirkanmaa Kuru’s Riuttaskorve. The immediate environment of streams is protected by the Forest Act. The Water Act could protect the streams themselves, which could force them to be taken into account in, for example, construction projects and drainage.
Unlucky after the vote, the coalition supported Mai Kivelä (left) ajamaa ponta, i.e. the statement of the parliament.
According to Kivelä, the idea of the statement was to correct the mistake and restore the protection intended for the streams. It suited the coalition, because the removal of stream protection was not initially important to the coalition, but part of the compromise made in the environmental committee, where the nature conservation law was softened in many respects.
In favor of the statement proposed by Kivelä all members of the coalition voted Heikki Autto except. All Basic Finns and centrists voted against it.
Many members of the coalition want to be seen as protectors of streams and the Baltic Sea. The state of the streams affects a wide area, because the water flows from the headwaters to the Baltic Sea. Topwater streams also act as safe havens for organisms if other parts of the catchment area become polluted.
In the statement, the parliament requires that the government “as soon as possible start preparing a legislative amendment, which will expand the scope of the protected threatened aquatic habitat types to cover the habitat types required for the protection goals of aquatic biodiversity”.
The statement is binding and still valid.
At least the matter has not been dealt with yet. Since the amendment would be made to the Water Act, the matter belongs to the Ministry of Justice, which is headed by the Minister of Basic Finns Leena Meri.
Ministry of Justice legislative advisor Jari Salila confirms to HS that streams and springs are not on the work list.
“A project like this has not been included in the government program, and we at the Ministry of Justice currently do not have the resources to promote that project,” he says.
“In other words, there is no project pending in this regard or at the moment.”
The rare star was filmed in Reuna village in Vantaa in August 2020.
Salila’s main focus is now on reforming the compensation criteria in the Redemption Act. For example, the compensations paid for power lines laid due to wind power have aroused resentment among some forest owners. The government wants to improve their position.
Minister Meri also confirms to HS that the protection of streams is not currently pending in the Ministry of Justice.
“Presentations outside of the board’s program require the board’s unanimous will and decision, at least I’m not aware of any.”
HS information according to the coalition, there could still be support for the protection of streams, but the matter is not being promoted because it has not been agreed upon in the government program. Minister of the Environment Kai Mykkänen comment on the matter via text message. He writes that the revitalization of streams and other streams is a key part of the implementation of the restoration decree.
The Finnish government tried until the end to overturn the restoration decree in the EU. According to Mykkänen, the legislative change required by the parliament “is being considered as part of the national restoration plan”.
Mykkänen points out that there is another point in the government program that helps small streams: the government has promised to update the Water Act so that fisheries obligations can be imposed on all hydropower plants. The obligation often means, for example, building fish roads for migrating fish or planting fish.
So far There are still small hydropower plants in Finland that do not have to compensate in any way for the harm they cause to fish stocks.
Addressing these “zero obligations” was also in the program of the last government, but Anna-Maja Henriksson’s The Ministry of Justice led by (r) did not prioritize the project and the work was not done.
The explanation was at the time In an interview with HS the same as with this government: there is little labor and that time is spent on reforming the Redemption Act.
According to legislative advisor Salila, the update of the water act regarding zero-obligation power plants is to be started during this term of office, but the task has not yet been tackled.
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