Biofool called peat
THIS PAGE HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED SINCE 2009. Peat mining may not be a major threat for biodiversity in the European context, but in Finland it is threatening globally important mire ecosystems. These web pages have been created by the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation to inform what kind of mires peat mining is threatening in Finland.
One of the mires where Vapo wants to start mining in its recent, natural state.
Kuohuneva mire, municipality of Pyhäntä. Photo: Mauri Huhtala.
The Finnish peat industry often claims that they do not exploit mires that have not been ditched.
These kind of claims are false and we hope the examples in these pages will clarify the following problems of the Finnish peat mining:
a) Peatmining industry is regularly exploiting mires that are unditched and/or biologically valuable, and is planning to do so also in the future
b) Although each peat mining area requires an environmental permit from regional Environmental Permit Authority, the biodiversity of these areas in general is not to taken into account in this permit process according the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court (KHO:2005:27). Only an occurrence of a limited group of the rarest species can stop or change significantly the permit process.
c) Unditched mires are regularly reserved for peat mining in the provincial land-use planning.
d) Peat miners are regularly purchasing areas of unditched mires for the mining purposes.
e) Peat miners are also regularly complaining about the negative decisions for peat mining.
The examples of threatened mires are divided into four groups and cover altogether some 6600 hectares of unditched mires:
A. Examples of mires where peat mining will start (15 examples)
B. Examples of mires which are planned to be exploited by peat mining industry (21 examples)
C. Examples of mires which peat miners have purchased for peat mining in the future (9 examples)
D. Examples of juridical disputes (8 examples)
Links for electronic maps of each area are also provided. For comparison: ditched finnish peatland looks like this in a map. By clicking the word "Ilmakuva" in the upper right corner of the page, you can also see an aerial photo (black and white) of each area.
Before the mining can start the mire must be drained.
Humpinsuo mire, City of Kajaani. Photo: Harri Hölttä.
The supporting role of the State of Finland is significant for peat mining industry. The state owns the majority (50,1%) of the biggest peat mining corporation (Vapo Oy). The state also rents and sells state owned mires for peat miners. Some of them have been sold for Vapo at relatively low prices. The state supports the use of peat as a source of energy with certain subsidies, in total of 20 million euros per year. It is also the government's official goal to classify peat as a renewable energy and a valid source of biodiesel in the international arenas.
In June 2008 the first assessment of threatened habitat types in Finland was published. In the southern half of the country, where vast majority of peat mining is located, altogether 77% of all mire types were found endangered and 19% near-threatened. Aapa mires and raised bogs are also prioritised habitats of the Habitats Directive of the EU. In practice this means that whenever peat mining starts on any unditched mire, it will most probably also destroy some prioritised, endangered and/or near-threatened mire types. Because some 75% of mires in southern half of the country have been ditched for forestry, there would be a lot of alternative areas which have already lost their natural state. Regardless the mining of unditched mires continues.
After the mire has been drained and the trees and vegetation removed, the peat is collected layer by layer. The mire is turned into a lifeless desert.
Kirkkosuo peat mine, City of Kitee. Photo: Harri Hölttä.
Although this webpage concentrates on losses of biodiversity caused by peat mining, they are not the only losses the mining causes. Weaker quality of water, disadvantages for recreation, fish and fishing, the noise of machines as well as peat dust and risk of fires during the dry summer periods can also be results of peat mining - not to mention the fact that burning peat causes more carbon emissions than burning oil or coal per energy unit. Burning peat taken from unditched mires causes bigger emissions compared with peat mined from ditched peatlands. Even though only six per cent of the energy produced in Finland comes from burning peat, it causes currently as much carbon emissions as traffic altogether.
There are 53 examples in this page at the moment, but more examples will be added later. Comments and questions conserning this page: mr. Harri Hölttä, Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, e-mail: holtta (at) sll.fi
