Snowchange

16/12/2024

ICCA Saami Forest in Storymaps

The Sámi forest of Alttokangas, 72 ha in size, is located in the municipality of Inari and is the first ICCA (Indigenous and Community Conserved Area) in the Sámi Home Area. ICCAs are protected by Indigenous Peoples and/or local communities themselves and contain important biodiversity. ICCAs can be found across the world. Now a new StoryMaps summarizes the conservation and restoration efforts in this first-ever ICCA for the Sámi in Finland.

The Sámi forest of Alttokangas was approved as an ICCA in 2024. In 2023 Finnish NGO Snowchange Cooperative got funding from the The Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation for a project titled: Snowchange Arctic Rewilding: Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge Rewilding of Boreal Forests in Finland.

In consultation with the local Sámi Alttokangas was chosen as one of the project sites. To-date the participating Sámi and Snowchange researchers are finding their integrated approach to conserving and restoring Alttokangas to be a meaningful new method.

In 2023 questions about the conservation status of Alttokangas emerged. What mechanism could both protect the forest and safeguard Sámi rights, land-use and their role in protecting the biodiversity of the area. The Sámi families involved want to protect Alttokangas forest in a way that includes the traditional Sámi knowledge, land-use, history and observations.

As part of the cooperation in Alttokangas ecological restoration activities have started in the forest. Here we discuss the two major activities so far – fencing off small plots of land to monitor vegetation recovery, and a prescribed burn.

In just two years the project has achieved the establishment of the first ICCA site in the Sámi Home Area, launched a comprehensive ecological inventory and monitoring practice, and kick-started the practical restoration of this important Sámi site.

We share messages from this work in a new StoryMap in Sámi, Finnish, Swedish and English to advance the understanding of Sámi-led conservation and restoration in the European North.

Snowchange

03/12/2024

Climate Breakthrough Expands the Rewilding Programme Across the Boreal From Finland into North America

Climate Breakthrough Award will make it possible to enable peatland restoration and protection on several sites from Finland to North American boreal. Climate Breakthrough Award program is uniquely designed for social change leaders to develop, launch, and scale their new initiatives with breakthrough potential to address climate change. Snowchange work will scale up in Arctic Circle area in Finland, Minnesota, Canada and Alaska on peatlands.

Over the next three years, the Climate Breakthrough program will provide a $4 million funding package to develop, launch, and scale boldest new initiatives with breakthrough potential to address climate change. All in all four teams and leaders have been chosen for 2024.

This means initiatives that could significantly reduce global annual greenhouse gas emissions, affect entire industries or regions of the world, and materially change the lives of tens of millions of people within ten years of launch.

“I’m honored to welcome Alex, Eriel, Kimiko, and Tero into the Climate Breakthrough Award program. They exemplify the kind of visionary leadership and thinking that lies at the heart of our mission. We’re honored to support them in bringing their most ambitious climate action ideas to life,” said Savanna Ferguson, Executive Director of Climate Breakthrough.

Climate Breakthrough Award associated with Snowchange Landscape Rewilding Programme will establish a pan-boreal network of Restoration Hubs on peatlands with the following territories to start with

• Boreal peatlands at the Arctic Circle in Finland, including stepping stones ecosystems in Kemijärvi, Sodankylä, Savukoski and especially in Ranua. Additionally we will investigate the role of cultural landscapes in a wind power investments in Ranua
• Northern Minnesota and the St. Louis River peatlands
• Hudson Bay ecoregion in Canada
• Central Alaska with pilot areas currently being discussed

Launched in 2016, the Climate Breakthrough Award program is uniquely designed for social change leaders to develop, launch, and scale their new initiatives with breakthrough potential to address climate change.
The programme has supported in the past 22 individuals and one team of awardees. Climate Breakthrough Awardees have collectively secured over $236 million in follow-on funding from more than 90 different funders to advance their work. Combined, their Climate Breakthrough initiatives have the potential to reduce global annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 5.3 gigatons by 2030.

Snowchange

13/11/2024

Onkamo Restoration Plan 1 is released

Onkamo Restoration Plan 1 is released to the public. It contains, in Finnish a number of recommendations of how a whole lake system could be restored. Additionally it recounts some history and ICCA status of the lakes.

Snowchange

17/09/2024

A New Documentary Film Released from Koitajoki

An American production company PrettyGoodProductions and Snowchange have finished a new documentary film about Koitajoki after three years of work. It is free to watch online.

Seining for a Song is a documentary by the American film director Thomas Miller, which deals with the history, culture and nature of Koitajoki in Eastern Finland.

The focus of the film is the country’s only river seining tradition, which renews the spawning areas of the endangered whitefish population. At the same time, the culture of the villages has changed and the restoration and rewilding efforts are under way.

The film is part of the cooperative’s extensive restoration activities in Koitajoki.

Snowchange

13/09/2024

BBC Reports on Snowchange Rewilding

BBC Future is running a large feature story on Linnunsuo and the Landscape Rewilding Programme.

Finland's Linnunsuo wetland used to be a barren "moonscape". A local fishing community has transformed it into a biodiverse haven and an important carbon sink. BBC has more.

Snowchange

15/08/2024

Mika Honkalinna Recognized with a Namesake Conservation Area at 60

Mika Honkalinna (born 8 August 1964 in Anjala) is a Finnish wildlife photographer and an author. Since 2018 Mika has been collaborating with Snowchange on visualizing and advancing the Landscape Rewilding Programme. In total Mika has inventoried and photographed dozens peatlands, forests, rivers and lakes in the programme. In August 2024 Mika turns 60 and in order to celebrate this Snowchange has decided to name Kiuasvaara Peatland and OGF forest in Pudasjärvi, totaling 18 hectares, as a Mika Honkalinna namesake site to celebrate Mika's life work and achievements for nature and Finnish traditions.

He was born and in Kymenlaakso, South-East Finland, where he lived much of his life, but at the moment he lives in Liminka, in North Ostrobothnia. Mika has said of his art:

"My photos and my stories are born in the midst of northern coniferous forests and swamps and often in the middle of northern winter, snow and ice, inspired by the survival and the aesthetics of winter. Most often, my illustrated stories are intertwined around the relationship between men and nature and the attempts to understand them. The sharp fluctuation of seasonal variations, the polar night in the winter, the light summer nights and the multi-faceted landscape of Fennoscandia create fascinating conditions for photographing and spending time outdoors."

Snowchange

26/07/2024

A Large OGF Forest Joins from Sodankylä

A complex of four sites from Northern Sodankylä has joined the Landscape Rewilding Programme. The whole area is an outstanding example of north boreal old growth forest located in Sodankylä, Lapland. It has 175-186-year-old boreal forests and peatlands. It is appr. 176 hectares as a total area.

The site was included into the Landscape Rewilding Programme in July 2024. These old growth forests contain an approx. 175-year-old pine and spruce forest as well as deciduous timber. The area is a very representative entity of the almost untouched northern boreal forest.

The area serves as a connecting ecological corridor between the Posoaava and Koitelainen Nature 2000 areas.

The 92,358-hectare Posoaapa and its parts, Tenniöaava and Kaita-aava, are the biggest peatland complexes in Peräpohjola. Rivers divide the area into several large parts.

Both Peräpohjola and Metsä-Lappi peatland belong to the Pomoaavan-Iso Postoaava swamp area. Thus, the area is a transition zone of swamp types.

The forests in the area are almost entirely over 200-year-old natural spruces. There are also ultra-alkaline rocks in the area. The Pomokaira area belongs to the northern Peräpohjola aapa peatlands. The area is very important as a nesting area for northern waterfowl.

The Koitelainen area of 48,938 hectares is a large marshy watershed between Luiro and Kitinen. Swamps are mainly fens. The versatile meadows located mainly in the southern part cover approx. 3% of the area.

The streams are bordered by willows. There are almost 100 km of small streams in the area. Forests grow in islands. All the forest types of Northern Finland are represented on the slopes of Koitelainen. The forests are mainly natural spruce forests over 200 years old. There is a lot of rotten wood. There are ultra-alkaline rocks in the area.

Koitelaiskaira is one of the most representative swamp areas. It has remained wilderness. The area is a very important nesting and living area for endangered birds and mammals. The bird species is diverse.

The site is on the list of internationally significant wetlands, i.e. the so-called Ramsar site and an internationally important bird area (IBA).

The Kevitsa mining area is located in the immediate vicinity of Koitelaiskaira.

Snowchange

05/07/2024

Ellala Peatlands in Ranua Open a New Strategic Landscape

Ellala peatlands in Ranua, slightly south of the Arctic Circle, are both amazingly intact and biodiverse peatlands and impacted by peat mining. Snowchange focuses in the region to support large wilderness areas, local communities and water quality.

Ellala Peatlands are a massive boreal carbon sink and store. In June and July 2024 Snowchange has worked with local landowners, organizations such as Luiminka River Association and conservation groups to initiate a new strategic level rewilding landscape. Totaling at appr. 500 hectares, both large intact peatlands, recovering boreal forests and peat mining sites to be restored have been included into the whole.
These actions support Litokaira, the largest intact wilderness area south of the Arctic Circle in Europe, totaling 33,000 hectares. On the Western side of Litokaira Snowchange has already over 330 hectares of intact peatlands supporting Litokaira and its wilderness histories.
These actions support local reindeer herders and local communities for years to come.

Snowchange

19/05/2024

Two new areas to the ICCA Registry – A Sámi Forest Area and Onkamo lakes in North Karelia

In May 2024, the ICCA Registry approved the first forest area protected by the Sámi, or the so-called ICCA area in Nordic countries. The Altto-oja forest, located by the Ivalojoki, is a 72-hectare entity. At the same time, the Onkamo lakes in the Province of North Karelia were accepted into the register as an example of important natural areas for local Finnish communities. These decisions represent a vanguard of conservation methods in the region.

The Altto-oja forest, a 72-hectare complex, located by the Ivalojoki river, is the traditional area of a Sámi family, where Sámi reindeer husbandry continues. The area has significant natural values. The families of the area wanted the Altto-oja to be protected, in a way where the Sámi traditional knowledge, land use, history and nature knowledge are also included as part of the whole. In 2023 the Landscape Rewilding Programme and the Sámi community of Altto-oja started a collaboration.

In the fall of 2023, after the inventories and the collection of Indigenous knowledge an application was submitted for the Altto-oha to the UN Environment and ICCA Registry. The goal was to get the site an ICCA (Indigenous and Community-Conserved Areas) area - ICCA areas are a relatively new, international protection status for areas where indigenous peoples or local communities are able to demonstrate an undeniable ability to protect their areas, manage their rights and maintain biodiversity.

In May 2024, Altto-oja was accepted into the ICCA Registry maintained by the UN. In the justifications, nature values and the Sámi tradition are emphasized. There are several endangered habitats on the site.

The Alttokangas area is characterized by a sand plateau accumulated by the ice flows of the end of the ice age. Through the plateau, the ice flow has eaten a steep canyon, where the bed of the current river meanders strongly towards larger Ivalojoki River. The soil is water-washed and layered sand, and there is a large erosion bump on the east bank where the layering of the sand can be seen.

The southern and southeastern slopes of the plateau are light slopes of ridge forests, and the area also includes two low, barren ridge ponds. The area has representative natural northern boreal pine forests, the average age of which is more than 200 years, and where there is a lot of groundwood. There are patterns of small logging from the 1990s on the site, which are being restored in cooperation with the Sámi people.

At the same UN / ICCA Registry meeting, the North Karelian region of Onkamojärvi was also accepted. Snowchange coordinates the long-standing village-led lake restoration complex. The inclusion states that the Onkamo Lakes are a significant example of lake restoration, where local communities have included almost the entire catchment area in remedial measures.

For example, many wetlands have been established in Onkamo, marshes have been restored and management fishing has been done for more than 15 years. Most of the activities were coordinated by Tuovi Vaaranta from Pro Onkamojärvet Ry until recently.
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In 2023, operations were transferred to Snowchange. The Onkamo example is the first entire lake in the northern regions with its catchment area to enter the UN register, and it can be considered a significant example of the effort to restore Finnish water nature.

These efforts to include these sites into the ICCA Registry were made possible with a grant from the Swedish PostCode Foundation. Their grant also supports the active restoration of these sites and co-creation of a completely new model of conservation in the boreal areas of the Nordic countries.

Snowchange

17/05/2024

Kuosku Reindeer Forests An Outstanding Example of Boreal Old Growth

Snowchange has worked with the families of Kuosku, Savukoski in Eastern Lapland to secure over 120 hectares of old growth forests and large peatland areas into rewilding and conservation. The sites are in close proximity to European-level protected areas.

Marjavaara OGF is one of the sites in the recent breakthrough. It is over 75 hectare natural forest in Finnish reindeer herding village of Kuosku, Eastern Lapland. The sites totaling 120 hectares include outstanding examples of north boreal old growth forests and peatlands.

Marjavaara OGF has approximately 100-200-years-old pine and spruce forest and intact peatlands. It is an iconic and significant site of northern boreal forests, mostly unaffected by human activities. The site is important for reindeer herding activities.

Marjavaara's old forest contains approx. 100-160-year-old pine and spruce forest and intact bogs. The area is a very representative entity of the almost untouched northern boreal forest.

It is a large, unified piece of a fine mosaic of stream banks, floodplains and forest. Human influence is also low in the forests, the trees are on average 98 years old. The oldest patterns, 160 years old, are small in size, but there are several hectares of 140-150-year-old pine trees on the plot.

The shores of the stream is swampy and there are more hardwoods, otherwise the area is very coniferous. Johkanoja flows into Pyhäjoki, along which there are some ditching. The area supports the natural values of Pyhäjoki and the condition of the Tenniöjoki catchment area.

In the vicinity of Marjavaara's old forest is the Maltio Strict IUCN Protected Area and the Joutsitunturi-Koukkutunturi Nature 2000 area. In total, these protected areas have a size of 30,000 hectares.

Maltio Strict IUCN Protected Area is located in a watershed area. The nature types are diverse: aapa peatland plains, extensive forests between stony slope forests and small streams.

The forests of Joutsitunturi are the natural lush groves of the fell slopes. Pine trees are of different ages and structures. Sirrikumpu is an area of approximately 250 ha that burned in the 1960s and is dominated by birch trees. About half of Koukkutunturi's forests are natural spruces over 200 years old. Most of the pines are over 200 years old. On the eastern slope of Koukkutunturi there are younger pine trees of different structures.

Additionally Vuospajanaapa at appr. 40 hectares is a completely intact area of swamp and natural forest.

Of special note are the 120-year old birch patterns along Kuoskunoja stream which are a really nice lush streamside biotope. Farther from the stream there are sparse trees or open undrained swamp. On the western edge of the rim structures, a really nice watery neva peatland.

The southern edge of the plot is bordered by a state-drained swamp. In the 1980s sedge species which were found to be growing indicate lushness also on the side of the open moor.

Vuospajaanaapa supports the goals of the 12,785-hectare Joutsenaava Natura 2000 area near (FI1301404). The area is a large, uniform marsh area, a flat basin in terms of topography, where the marshes have developed to be very ridged and stringy. Wide raven zones along the banks of the Aatsinkijoki and its tributaries, which cross the area, are also characteristic.
Joutsenaapa is mainly low- and medium-nutrient, the largest marsh areas are in Kuppiaava. The neva area is almost completely covered with water. There have been extensive flooded meadows along the banks of streams and rivers.

These sites would have been logged otherwise. Now they are secure. Their protection is the life work of two reindeer herders, Yrjö Kuosku (passed at 95 years of age) and Pentti Pulska who recently also passed. They never allowed these sites to be clear cut.