Dispute of the national landscape was risen at Koli – the shepherd has to leave the shepherds without sheep

Sheep on Lakkala farm in Koli National Park — Sheep grazing on the pasture of the Lakkala farm at Koli.

The new interpretation of the ELY Center on environmental compensation led to the entrepreneur’s much publicity.

Popular sheep shepherd is interrupted in Koli National Park due to a dispute related to environmental compensation.

Participants in the shepherds offered by Metsähallitus will stay in simple conditions for a week and can follow grazing sheep, which at the same time handle valuable traditional environments.

Metsähallitus does not pay for the lamp, but will receive compensation on the basis of an environmental agreement approved by the ELY Center. The agreement preserves or promotes valuable nature or landscape values.

Koli’s question is that the ELY Center has changed its interpretation of the terms of the environmental agreement so that the owner of the sheep no longer receives compensation for the grazing of the sheep. According to the lamp, the shepherd’s supervision is now considered public support.

Lindgren has not received any compensation last summer. He has appealed against ELY’s decision to the Administrative Court.

The search for shepherds closed on Monday. This year, the Koli Shepherd Week could not yet be applied for as Lindgren is about to give up the action. The search for Koli is scheduled to open in April, by which time Metsähallitus hopes to find a new lamp.

The Food Agency’s guidance requires supervision

Metsähallitus concludes a separate agreement with each lamp for leasing grazing and natural care. Hiltunen is not aware of the details of the agreements, but apparently, elsewhere in Finland, there is no entry in the contract of sheep control.

According to Lindgren, Metsähallitus was also suggested to him that no animal control would be recorded in the agreement. However, he did not agree to this because it is about animal welfare.

– I do not put animals of me or partners in a place where no one promises to monitor them.

Lindgren lives in Nurmes, 130 kilometers from Koli.

According to the Food Agency’s instructions, sheep should be checked every day. For example, this may be deviated from the island pastures that are severely achieved. They also have to visit several times a week.

The handsome old gray log building stands on the shore of the lake. — Lampuri Mariko Lindgren has edited sheep, for example, to the Lakkala replacement in Koli.

Metsähallitus only sells accommodation

According to Hiltunen, Metsähallitus does not oblige the shepherd to do any kind of sheep care work. In practice, it is a accommodation service that has the opportunity to spend time with sheep.

Sheep and their well -being are entirely the responsibility of their owner. According to Hiltunen, the owner is responsible for ensuring that the operation is legal.

\”I don’t think anywhere (owner) visits any destination every day,\” he says.

Lindgren also emphasizes that he himself is responsible for the sheep, despite the supervision recorded in the contract.

– In practice, it has gone so that the shepherds have observed those sheep once or twice a day. If they notice something abnormal, they will inform us and we will solve those problems.

The ELY Center invokes new instructions

Lindgren has been supplying sheep to Koli’s shepherd weeks since 2016.

Problems with the environmental agreement began in 2023, when the new EU agricultural financial period began.

According to Rummuinen, the ELY Center is guided by the Food Agency’s guidelines and the interpretation has been refined with the programming period that began in 2023.