Major New Research Report Out on Linnunsuo Wetland

linnunsuo“The Jukajoki restoration project is a symbol of major importance that crystallizes some of the biggest issues of our century…The Jukajoki Project and the future of Linnunsuo deserve an international attention and could constitute the starting point of new way of taking care of Nature. – Laventure and Scherer, 2017

Linnunsuo wetland is a Snowchange-owned biodiversity hotspot in the Jukajoki catchment, North Karelia, Finland. This former peat production has emerged as an internationally relevant bird habitat. It also controls the acidic soils. Linnunsuo is co-managed.

From January 2017 to August 2017 two young researchers from the University of Lille, France, Marion Laventure and Antoine Scherer, conducted an intensive investigation of both Linnunsuo wetland and Jukajoki river restoration in Finland. They write:

rysa“The Jukajoki restoration project is a symbol of major importance that crystallizes some of the biggest issues of our century:

  • The biodiversity crisis: in the current biological mass extinction context, the need to restore and protect habitats sheltering endangered species, such as Linnunsuo, has never been stronger
  • Climate change: the restoration and protection of peatlands, which constitute some of the most effective carbon sinks on the planets, could contribute to reducing greenhouse gases concentrations in the atmosphere and slow global warming
  • Social issues and the loss of traditions: the victory against the State company is a striking event that can give hope to other local communities around the globe struggling with the same kind of land appropriation and ecological degradation issues.
  • The implementation of a co-management gives back governance to the local people, who will take decisions in the aim of retrieving ecosystems supporting ancestral activities through a combined use of expert and traditional knowledges.

The introduction of rewilding in Finland could be beneficial to both local communities, whose deeply impacted ecosystems could be restored using this innovative discipline, and to rewilding itself, which could enrich from a new way to apprehend nature management. By strengthening the health of wild nature in Eastern Finland, rewilding could help strengthening local communities…The Jukajoki Project and the future of Linnunsuo deserve an international attention and could constitute the starting point of new way of taking care of Nature.

The report is available here.

This entry was posted in News. Bookmark the permalink.