Suomussalmi mussel destruction | Minister Mykkänen demanded a protection zone for the wild – This is how the big forest companies commented

Finland the largest forest companies undertake to comply with the Minister of the Environment and Climate Kai Mykkänen (kok) requires a 50-meter protection zone for river pearl mussels, i.e. raw.

“After the minister presented his idea on Friday, we immediately decided to commit to a 50-meter protection zone,” says the forest management manager of the forest company UPM Liisa Viikari.

In Mükkänen’s opinion the forestry sector could jointly commit to leaving a 50-meter protection zone along the banks of raw rivers, where no trees will be cut down.

The zone would prevent sand and silt from flowing into the water from the logging area and would also help the forest by leaving shade trees in place.

There are 140–150 brook rivers left in Finland. Only in a few cases can the raw material reproduce properly.

“I don’t know that we have planned fellings in UPM’s own forests or wood stores in private forests along raw rivers, but we have an internal investigation underway to confirm this,” says Viikari.

CEO of Stora Enso Hans Solhlström said on Friday that the company has already committed to a 50-meter protection zone.

Then when logging comes close to a rough deposit, the local Center for Business, Transport and the Environment (ely) looks at the logging notice and, if necessary, gives instructions to take the rough into account.

The largest number of raw deposits are in Northeast Finland and Lapland.

For example, Lapland’s ely center receives an estimated 20–30 logging notifications on a raw basis each year.

Last year, Lapland’s ely center received a total of 568 forest use notifications. In Lapland, common reasons for sending a felling notice to the ely center are, for example, the location of fellings near a protected area or in a groundwater area.

Usual logging notifications are not sent to the ely center.

Biologist at Lapland’s ely center Jukka Ylikörkkö says that in logging announcements related to raw materials, the protection zones are not always designed in accordance with the recommendation.

According to the recommendation, a 45-meter protection zone should be left on the bank of the river or stream, where the forest should not be processed at all. If there is no zone, the ely center advises to leave the protection zone.

Ely centers do not regularly monitor whether the instructions given in their statements are followed.

Also Metsä Group accepted the protection zone requirement presented by Minister Mykkänen on Friday.

“On Friday, we confirmed our commitment to this 50-meter protection zone and we have followed the authorities’ instructions until now,” says the forest director Juha Jumppanen.

According to him, Metsä Group does not currently have logging operations in areas bordering raw rivers.