Inari Friends of Nature proposes to the Ministries of the Environment and Agriculture and Forestry that they examine the conditions for the establishment of the Lake Inari National Park.
Inari Friends of Nature hopes that the ministries will submit a bill on the Lake Inari National Park to Parliament based on the study.
– Sanna Marin thanked me for the presentation, and Ohisalo and I had fifteen minutes to discuss it,” Roininen says.
The establishment of a national park on Lake Inari has been considered in the past. However, in 2018, the municipality of Inari decided not to proceed with the project. There is also a more recent perspective on the issue, as a land policy programme was adopted in Inari last autumn. It outlined that there is no need for a third national park. There are currently two national parks in the Inari region: the Lemmenjoki and Urho Kekkonen national parks.
With the national park project, Inari Luononystätiv wants to protect Inarijärvi from, among other things, mass tourism. Roininen fears that if the planned zoning for the shores of Inarijärvi is approved, unnecessarily massive cottage villages will be built on the lake. There is also a fear that the lake will start splashing around with, for example, jet skis.
– Now there is a threat that the lake will become a playground for the tourism industry’s ancillary software and an amusement ride center for the rich, Roininen fears.
Although the association wants to protect the beaches from construction, for example, it wants to preserve the culture of using the lake as it is.
– In the lake use plan, you could think about what is allowed and what is not.
Can’t the lake be protected other than with a national park decision?
– We would like a comprehensive use and management plan for the lake. The Metsähallitus won’t start doing that if the lake doesn’t have national park status, Roininen states.
– Let’s hope for wisdom in this matter from the decision-makers of Inari municipality.