PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Virgin mires are the dominant natural habitat in northern Fennoscandia, and the typically boreal aapa mires, a priority habitat under Directive 92/43/EEC, represent one of the most biodiverse kind of peatlands here. The project area in Lapland and Ostrobothnia is regarded as very special because of the multiformity of the mires occurring here. It contains a succession series ranging from young mires adjacent to the rising coastline to old mires further inland, as well as succession series of nutrient-rich mires, which are regarded as unique in Finland. However, drainage, forestry and occasional peat digging, as well as uncontrolled recreational activities in some mires, had made their conservation status vulnerable. In small alkaline fens, even one ditch can change the hydrological balance dramatically and thus jeopardize their valuable habitat types and species. A great danger to the virgin mires was also the remarkably high proportion of private ownership, which did not always guarantee continuation of the mires' natural state.
OBJECTIVES
Tackling 29 separate aapa mire sites ranging in size from over 10,000 ha to less than 50 ha and totalling about 53,700 ha, this ambitious LIFE project aimed, in one fell swoop, to secure most of the important aapa mires in Finland which had not yet been protected by the end of the 1990s. This would involve the acquisition of over 12,000 ha of mire, either by purchasing or swapping. Another aim was to restore mires affected by drainage ditches. Restoration plans for 2,200 ha would be drawn up. The objective was to implement at least half of these plans during the LIFE project by damming and filling ditches and cutting encroaching shrubs and trees. Acceptance of mire protection by local communities was seen as essential and in this context the project intended to draw up a pilot plan to develop soft tourism in Heinäjänkä mire so that local residents would gain a direct benefit from their mire.
RESULTS
The project ended well after some unforeseen difficulties during the first years. It produced 18 restoration plans, a management plan (area of 1,100 ha) for Heinijänkä-Karhuaapa-Kokonräme and a publication on vegetation in Heinijänkä-Karhuaapa-Kokonräme. This project covered an area of 53,700 ha with 29 subsites in Lapland and northern Ostrobothia. All subsites are pSCI and 14 also SPA. The size of the sites ranged from 10,000 ha to 50 ha. The project acquired 10,057 ha and restored 1,421 ha. In many cases no action was needed as the mire was restoring itself naturally. The main target was conservation of aapa mires and species related to them, but also other habitat types benefited, like *bog woodlands, *Fennoscandian deciduous swamp woods, alkaline fens, *raised bogs, *petrifying springs with tufa formations and Fennoscandian springs and spring fens. The project directly improved the favourable conservation status of these habitat types. By project end there were already indications that restoration measures had been successful - the first restoration measures from 1999 and 2000 were checked by mire experts, who concluded that mire vegetation had started to recover - but only long-term monitoring will show how close to natural status these restored mires will become. Plant species which benefited from project restoration actions were Cypripedium calceolus, Saxifraga hirculus, Hamatocaulis lapponicus, H. vernicosus and Meesia longiseta. Aapa mire restoration was still quite new in Finland in 1999, compared to degraded raised bog restoration. The LIFE-Nature project made it possible to test and find the right restoration techniques in northern areas and especially contributed to increase the know-how of aapa mire restoration, which is not the same as in raised bog restoration, because of the different profile and thus hydrology of these mire types. Acceptance of mire protection by local communities was seen as essential and in this context the project drew up a pilot plan to develop soft tourism in Heinäjänkä mire so that local residents gain a direct benefit from their mire. The project agreed with the Road District that the latter would make a lay-by in 2003 along the road which passes the Heinijänkkä-Kokonräme subsite, to improve visitors’ possibilities to see the area (preventing car parking in unwanted places). A LEADER project to build a booth for cloudberry sellers was planned by the municipality of Tervola at project end. A study about what local people at 3 subsites think about mire restoration revealed that there is not enough information available for the public. Also a question “does the LIFE project benefit local people” was asked; more than 40 % of the persons could not answer, but when it came to questions about the benefit of different infrastructures cofinanced by LIFE, almost 60 % found boardwalks and bird towers useful. After this study, the beneficiary increased public awareness activities and concluded that in the future even more effort needed to be invested to participate local people in the management of Natura 2000 sites. The project prepared a brochure about mire restoration targeted to the general public, to explain why ditches are filled in mires and other techniques. Because of the large budget for purchase/compensation payments (more than 4.2 million euros), landowners in northern Finland received considerable income from the sale of what were, in effect, economically marginal lands, bringing a capital injection to a relatively restricted area. Networking between this project and other LIFE-Nature projects was active and as the project was a pioneer among LIFE-Nature projects in Lapland, it started many co-operation activities with different stakeholders, helped other LIFE-Nature projects and organised the first platform meeting for LIFE-Nature projects in northern Finland. Participation in the LIFE Week and Green Week gave new contacts to the beneficiary and its municipality partners at the international level,and an opportunity to promote aapa mires outside Finland. The beneficiary's participation in the Green Days in 2002 opened new possibilities for co-operation between the environment administration, municipalities and schools.