Finnish Forest Act as a conservation tool in protecting boreal springs and associated bryophyte flora

To halt the loss of biodiversity, serious conservation measures are needed. Recently, key habitat approach has been adopted in all Nordic and Baltic countries. In Finland, conservation of Forest Act Habitats (FAHs) is the main instrument. We assessed whether FAHs have the potential to conserve the unique bryoflora of springs by studying 58 spring complexes, 8 of which included a predetermined FAH. FAHs had more pool surface and colder water than other springs. Our results suggest that a clear bias towards protecting certain types of springs exists, and that a significant number of FAHs have not yet been found. Moreover, our species data did not support the assumption that FAHs are of special importance: richness of bryophytes, specialists or red-listed species were not higher in FAHs. We conclude that the high demand of naturalness and the bias towards aesthetically appealing springs can lead to an ecologically crippled network of protected areas.