The merging of the Seitseminen and Helvetinjärvi national parks is now being lobbied in the next government’s program. The protected area would double to 21,000 hectares.
If the wishes of nature organizations come true, the largest forested national park in Southern Finland may be born in Pohjois Pirkanmaa in the future.
The Pirkanmaa district of the Finnish Nature Conservation Union (SLL) proposes that Seitseminen and Helvetinjärvi national parks be combined. The 11,000 hectares of state forest between them would be joined to national parks twenty kilometers apart, making the combined park more than twice as large as the current ones.
SLL’s Pirkanmaa district hopes that the next parliament could already decide on the merger. The association has just renewed its initiative to the Ministry of the Environment.
In addition, together with the Häme district of the Nature Union, it has made an initiative to the Pirkanmaa union, in which it hopes that the union will also propose the expansion of the national park.
– In this government period, a new national park was established in northern Finland, Salla. Now we should strengthen nature conservation in southern Finland, and there is no other such large regional entity here, says Raittinen.
The associations also propose that the merging of national parks be included in the preparation of the new provincial plan. The municipalities of the expansion area, Ruovesi and Ylöjärvi, also want to actively promote the issue.
Ruovesi has already decided to make a proposal to the Ministry of the Environment about expanding the Helvetinjärvi National Park to the border of the municipality. About 20 percent of the expansion part is in Ruovedi and 80 percent in the neighboring town of Ylöjärvi.
Landowners are afraid of tying up the timber trade
– The fears are related to the increase in the number of pests and how the wood trade will work in that area in the future. More than a dozen landowners would be completely inside the planned national park, and in addition, it would have a lot of border neighbors.
You could continue to sell wood from private lands and otherwise operate in the same way as now. However, according to Heikkilä, the fears of timber trade becoming more difficult are quite realistic.
– The forests in the middle of the park and in the neighborhood are difficult places from the point of view of the wood buyer. If a tree is felled there and it doesn’t really please the eye of the passerby, newspaper articles and image damage can follow.
The plans may cause pressure to cut down trees before the matter progresses. Heikkilä says that a few forest owners have considered whether, just to be sure, they should cut their own forest a little younger.
– Yes, it has become a topic of conversation. In other words, if there is an old forest on one’s own land, it is feared that it too may become subject to mandatory protection in the future.
The protected area is important for hunters
Hunting areas for several groups of moose would remain in the park, either completely or at least mainly. Those who hunt outside the clubs would also lose a significant hobby area.
– Southern Finland does not have such large uniform permit card areas for landless, unaccompanied hunters. The national park is the ultimate means of protection. This way, we should be able to find another way from the advice of the game management association, Kastari says.
Protection would speed up Finland’s environmental goals
The national park project is related to strengthening biodiversity, combating nature loss and increasing carbon reserves.
Hannu Raittinen reminds that Finland is committed to both EU and UN programs and staying in the agreements requires concrete actions.
– I understand that it hurts those whose rights have to be restricted. But now we should put the values \u200b\u200bin the right order and give things the right weight. Protection also improves nature’s carrying capacity and enables its sustainable economic utilization in the future.
The project is taken into account in the planning of the provincial plan
– The area between the national parks has already been identified in the provincial plan as a significant area in terms of ecosystem services. Personally, I think that protection should now be solved primarily through an initiative, and not through a provincial plan. However, we are investigating possible applicable formula entries as part of the ongoing life cycle and energy phase provincial formula.
Rissanen estimates that both the plan draft and the presentation to the Ministry of the Environment will be discussed by the provincial government before the summer holidays.
*What do you think about the national park project? You can discuss the topic until Wednesday at 11 pm.*
