Mire conservation in Finland

The history of mire conservation in Finland extends almost 50 years back. In the 1950s some representative examples of mires were protected as strict nature reserves to serve as objects for scientific research. In the 1960s a very extensive drainage of mires for forestry started, and a threat to the mires was noticed. Conservation plans covering some 180 000 ha of state-owned mires were prepared, but already then it was found out not to be enough especially in southern Finland, where most of the territory is privately owned. Therefore, in the 1970s a nationwide mire conservation programme covering 600 mires, altogether 500 000 ha, was prepared. Since then, some 80% of the mires belonging to the programme, have been protected, but also 10% of them have been drained. The assessment of threatened plant and animal species as well as studies of rich fens produced new information about the mires in the 1980s, and made it clear that the biodiversity of mires is not yet adequately protected. Since 1990 studies have been made to prepare a complementary mire conservation programme. Special attention has been paid to rich fens, fertile spruce mires, mosaics of forests and mires not forming mire complexes, and especially the young mires in the land uplift coast of western Finland, forming scientifically unique successional series. The mires proposed to be included in the complementary mire conservation programme have been divided into two categories. Well studied mires which are known to be valuable for conservation (I) and mires which are not adequately studied but probably have high conservation value.