August is here and in this newsletter we highlight a sweeping new collaboration with the Culture & Heritage Department, Gwich’in from NWT, Canada, and report the recent restoration of Makkaralatva-aapa, a large peatland at the Arctic Circle in Finland.
Culture & Heritage Department, Gwich’in Tribal Council from NWT, Canada and Snowchange have signed a sweeping collaboration agreement that establishes their home area as the new landscape hub under the Climate Breakthrough initiative. We have been collaborating with the Gwich’in Tribal Council for 25 years and this important Agreement takes the collaboration to new levels. Over the next few years we focus on the questions of peatlands and barren lands, their cultural and ecological roles in the NWT, and support the Gwich’in Tribal Council in their efforts. We commemorate this moment by releasing a new photographic book titled “When Gwich’in and Skolt Sámi Meet” in Autumn that will be distributed to the communities both in Skolt Sámi area in Finland and to the Canadian Gwich’in communities. Check back here for more information in September.
In the Finnish component of the Climate Breakthrough work, new large landscape sites such as the 300 hectare Miehinkäaapa in Salla have joined the peatland initiative. Equally so Makkaralatva-aapa located in Ranua has been now fully restored by Snowchange totalling 330 hectares. It is one of the most relevant peatlands from Western Ranua. Henri Leskinen from Snowchange restored the site. In Koitajoki peatlands have been restored in the lake Koitere region and the work will continue deep into Autumn.
In July several field missions visited the new peatland and forest sites have joined the Landscape Rewilding Programme. Maksamo lake and peatlands in Kemijärvi are a very biodiverse site that host a number of nesting birds such as cranes and are also a healthy spawning location of amphibians such as frogs. Monitoring missions have included bird, water and biodiversity mapping and results are coming in towards Autumn.
Finally Wraecca reports from the visits to the Pacific in the Spring. Please read the article here.