Part of the Green Belt

On Russian side of the border lies the planned Kalevala-national park area. Finnish and Russian authorites are together planning the Green Belt project which aimes to get UNESCO World Heritage status for the chain of old-growth forests along the border. But in Finnish side the authorietes are planning to include only the existing protection areas in the project - old-growth areas such like Malahvia outside protection areas are continuously being logged fro the Finnish forest industry.

>>> Green belt of Fennoscandia

 

The 3000-hectare state owned Malahvia wilderness comprises old-growth forests, peatlands, small lakes, ponds and streams in their natural state. The flora and fauna of the area include many endangered species. The waters of the area are of national importance. The governmental Regional Environmental Centre proposed Malahvia for the Natura 2000 -protection programme. The FPS, however, dropped the area out of the final Natura proposal.

Malahvia belongs to the valuable state owned old-growth forests to which the environmental NGOs have demanded a logging moratorium. Because of its location by the Russian border and its vast land area, Malahvia is also essential to the Finnish-Russian Green Belt -protection project. The planned Kalevala-national park is located on the Russian side of the border.

 

The beginning of the end

The recent loggings do not as such destroy the vast wilderness area. Instead, the wilderness will surely be destroyed by the huge future loggings planned for the area. Some of these loggings, if carried out right, could promote the natural state of the tree stand structure. However, the volume and intense of the forestry plan will result in an irrevocable loss of the nature protection and wilderness sense of the Malahvia area. According to the plans over half of the forest area will be logged in next ten years.

Timber from Malahvia is bought by Enso, UPM-Kymmene and Vapo Timber.

 Photos by the Finnish Nature League / Risto Sauso