EU Takes Bird Conservation Fight to The Finnish

BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 5, 2001 (ENS) - Finland's decision to build the Vuotos power plant in the country's northeast has landed it in hot water with the European Commission, which says the area, known as the mires of Kemihaara, is an important habitat for birds protected under the European Union's oldest piece of nature conservation legislation.

The Kemihaara mires are 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) of bog surrounded by boreal forest, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the Arctic circle in Finnish Lapland.

There are four territories of Peregrine falcons in the Vuotos area. (Photo by Seppo Keränen, courtesy Vapaa Vuotos)

Last year, Finnish authorities approved government owned power company Kemijoki Oy's plan to dam the Kemijoki river and construct a 240 square kilometer reservoir.

According to Kemijoki Oy, the Vuotos reservoir would increase the energy production of power plants located further south by 10 times more than if machinery were to be revised, which is a more expensive option, says the company.

The additional energy would help Finland cope with consumption fluctuations. Vuotos would help change the production methods of power plants located along the main channel of the river Kemijoki, raising power generation during winter when demand is typically high.

Finnish MEP Heidi Hautala. (Photo courtesy Vapaa Vuotos)

As long ago as 1995, Finnish Member of the European Parliament Heidi Hautala wrote to the European Commission, complaining that Finland had failed to follow the Wild Birds Directive and the Habitat Directive (92/43/EEC) when implementing its political decision making on the Vuotos project.

Logging in the surrounding boreal forest had already begun to make way for the plant, prompting Hautala's call for a quick response by the European Commission. As well as concerns over what the reservoir might do to wildlife, Hautala listed these concerns:

• The reservoir would cause important and geographically vast damage to the quality and usability of the waters in the area, and would put into question the agreed targets for cutting effluent emissions to the North Sea.

• Drinking water resources would become unusable.

• Local economies, such as berry and mushroom picking and hunting, would be destroyed. Traditional economies such as reindeer keeping, forestry and fishing would become more difficult.

• Valuable cultural heritage including archeologically important sites would be destroyed.

• Artificial reservoirs have been proved to produce climate changing gases, according to Hautala.

Map of the Vuotos project. (Map courtesy Kemijoki Oy)

Kemijoki Oy disputes many of the environmentalists' claims. The company says two species of birds nesting in the area are classed as "vulnerable" and six species "care demanding" nationwide.

"The number of individual birds only represent minimum 0.03 percent and maximum 4 percent of the nesting population of the above species in Finland," said a company statement. "Most of the birds that would have to move from the area belong to the sparrow family.

"The Vuotos reservoir could offer a peaceful and nutritious habitat for many other birds, such as seaeagle, which nests in great numbers by the large artificial lakes in northern Finland."

Site of the Vuotos project, with Vapaa Vuotos sign in the foreground. (Photo courtesy Kemijoki Oy)

"If Vuotos was built, the phosphorus load of the whole Kemijoki watercourse below the plant would only increase by some 15 percent... and be mainly limited to the first three years following construction. Its significance to the usability of the waters below would be only minor."

On the threat to plants and animals, the company cites another study from the University of Oulu.

"Studies conducted in the Vuotos area have not revealed any nationally extremely endangered species," said Kemijoki Oy. "The area was found to contain one regionally extremely endangered vascular plant - verikämmekkä (Dactylorhiza incarnata).

"There were found to be three nationally vulnerable species - greater scaup (Aythya marila), peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) and lettorisakas (inocybe hirculus). In addition to these, there were only species that belong to the class "care demanding".

"All species found at Vuotos can also be found elsewhere in the vicinity."

In July 1999, the European Commission decided to sue the Finnish government in the European Court of Justice for failing to designate the mires of Kemihaara an SPA. Despite this, the government approved the reservoir plan in February 2000. The case is still before the Luxembourg based court.

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström. (Photo courtesy European Commission)

"The Commission considers that the Vuotos power plant and the artificial lake would significantly damage these habitats and disturb the protected birds," said a Commission statement, which added, "This is contrary to the [Wild Birds] Directive."

"This decision stresses the responsibility that national authorities have to take the European Union's nature conservation directives into account when considering individual projects," said Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström.

If Finland fails to comply with the Reasoned Opinion, the Commission can bring the case before the European Court of Justice, which has the power to levy fines.

Last year the court ordered Greece to pay a daily fine of nearly US$20,000 for failing to shut down a waste disposal plant spewing toxic trash into a ravine 200 meters (650 feet) from the Mediterranean Sea on the island of Crete.