Snowchange
17/04/2025
The Skolt Sámi are rewilding the Näätämö River to protect their way of life
In Finland's far north, a collaborative approach encompassing Indigenous knowledge with Western science is helping to restore vital habitat for fish – and people.
Linking the boreal forests of Finland with Norway’s Arctic fjords, the River Näätämö eddies through a fast-changing landscape. The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average, and Atlantic salmon are vanishing from its shores.
The Näätämö has historically been rich in salmon, trout, grayling and a variety of whitefish, which spawn in the deep lakes and shale banks of its catchment and grow to adulthood in its meanders shaded by birch, spruce and pine. These fish populations – and the ecosystem that sustains them – represent one of Europe’s last areas of relatively intact wilderness. The Näätämö also sustains the Skolt Sámi, an Indigenous people who have lived in Europe’s far north for more than 10 millennia. While the Sámi are widely associated with reindeer herding, the existence of many communities is interwoven with the great salmon migrations of the North Atlantic.
The past half century has brought significant change to the Näätämö catchment. The region is on the forefront of the climate crisis, with warming waters and increased pollution disrupting the patterns of nature around which Sámi life has evolved. Salmon in the river have become smaller both in number and in size, and other fish populations have declined. This has been compounded by local industry, which has altered the very shape and flow of the river.
In the face of this, the Skolt Sámi are acting to protect the Näätämö and their way of life. In conjunction with Snowchange, a co-operative that works with Arctic Indigenous communities on the interconnecting issues of biodiversity, cultural tradition and climate change, they have begun to rewild the Näätämö, using Sámi knowledge to restore the river with a rare degree of fealty to its recent past.
A new English news article reviews over 15 years of restoration and rewilding work with the Skolt Sámi, available on the link.
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Snowchange
14/04/2025
Haarasuo Protected
Haarasuo, a peatland in Suomussalmi and a celebration site for Finnair, is now formally protected.
The conservation action supports extremely endangered freshwater mussels and biodiversity in Suomussalmi, Northeastern Finland.
Snowchange
07/04/2025
Kuumunsuo Officially Protected
Today the Center for the Environment, Transportation and Commerce - Kainuu in Finland officially protected Kuumunsuo, one of the wild forest reindeer sites in Eastern Finland as a conservation area.
The designation offers legal protection of the site which is totaling 44 hectares. The Center says that the site is of national relevance as a connectivity site between already protected sites and as habitat for the wild forest reindeer.
Snowchange
30/03/2025
Two Large Arctic Circle Peatlands Define the Late Winter
Two large Arctic Circle peatlands - Miehinkäaapa in Salla and Korppiaapa in Sodankylä - defined the late winter rewilding breakthroughs, totaling over 550 hectares.
Korppiaapa is close to Sodankylä and is over 300 hectares, making it a large single peatland close to the protected Viiankiaapa. Miehinkäaapa in Salla is over 200 hectares and important site close to several EU Nature 2000 sites. Both are significant bird migratory sites as well.
Snowchange
18/02/2025
New over 50 hectares Rewilding Area for the Wild Forest Reindeer with Sotkamo Municipality
Snowchange and the Sotkamo Municipality have agreed on a collaboration totaling over 50 hectares of critically important habitat for the wild forest reindeer.
Today the municipality of Sotkamo in Eastern Finland and Snowchange have signed a rewilding agreement to support wild forest reindeer. The joint operational area is located in Tipasoja village. At its core is a 26,48 hectares Snowchange owned rewilding site Lahtela. Sotkamo municipality has now agreed to provide additional adjacent area for rewilding as the area is critically important for the winter pastures of the wild forest reindeer. The agreement lasts in its initial form until 2045.
Snowchange
27/01/2025
Significant investment from RELEX Foundation and Snowchange Cooperative in the biodiversity of Finnish peatlands and forests in Ilomantsi and Sápmi
Snowchange Cooperative (Osuuskunta Lumimuutos) has received an exceptionally large €600,000 grant from the RELEX Foundation for nature conservation and restoration in Eastern and Northern Finland in 2024–2026. The aim is to safeguard Finland's unique and valuable peatlands and old-growth forests amidst increasing economic pressures. Local communities and their cultural heritage are at the heart of these actions, and restoration efforts utilise traditional knowledge about nature.
“The funding from the RELEX Foundation enables us to launch new initiatives. In Ilomantsi, we can protect and restore new areas, connecting ecologically valuable habitats such as eskers, natural small water ponds and peatlands within the nationally significant Putkelanharju-Petkeljärvi area. Protecting and restoring these sites near the eastern border is particularly effective, as the recovery of species and ecosystems benefits from the proximity of Russia's old-growth forests and pristine peatlands. In Sápmi, Finnish Sámi home area, at River Siuttajoki in Inari, we can purchase key old-growth forests vital for biodiversity conservation and restore areas impacted by human activities in collaboration with our Sámi partners,” says Tero Mustonen, Chair of Snowchange Cooperative.
The funding will also support the ongoing large-scale restoration project in the Koitajoki watershed. This initiative improves the condition of valuable peatlands and enhances the water quality of Koitajoki, which has suffered for decades from forestry management actions such as peatland ditching and alteration of hydrological conditions.. By improving water quality and restoring spawning grounds, conditions for the reproduction of the critically endangered brown trout and other salmonid species will be improved. Local residents actively participate in monitoring the river's condition through Finlands first River Guardian program.
The impacts of these efforts on nature recovery, such as species and habitat restoration, water quality, and climate emissions, will be monitored using scientific methods in both Ilomantsi and Sápmi. This research will provide insights into how quickly the condition of various ecosystems can be improved through restoration and what other environmental effects arise. This information will be valuable as Finland implements the EU’s new Restoration Law, which requires member states to restore at least 20% of their land and water ecosystems by 2030.
Snowchange has successfully employed innovative methods to secure large areas for conservation and restoration, working closely and respectfully with local communities.
“The ambitious, community-driven approach of Snowchange brings much-needed hope. The intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change are accelerating. We need practical examples which demonstrate how declarations can be transformed into impactful actions that improve nature at the scale required. With perseverance and creativity, even a small group of people can drive significant progress toward a better future,” says Johanna Småros, one of the founders of the RELEX Foundation.
Snowchange Cooperative is an independent, non-profit cooperative engaged in professional fishing, ecosystem restoration, and supporting traditional livelihoods worldwide. The cooperative is based in Tohmajärvi, North Karelia. www.snowchange.org, www.landscaperewilding.org, www.koitajoki.org
RELEX Foundation for a Better Future promotes diverse nature, a stable climate, and equitable societies. The foundation supports visionary organizations and initiatives working toward a better tomorrow for future generations. Although the foundation shares the same founders and a similar name with the company RELEX Solutions, it operates entirely independently.
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Snowchange
07/01/2025
New Trap Camera Documentary Released
A new short documentary filmed with several trap cameras has been released. It focuses on the boreal year and seasonal changes in Linnunsuo wetland in North Kareria, Finland.
Ecologists Alicia Jarma and Antoine Scherer present a 8 minute documentary about the changes in the wildlife and ecology of a Snowchange flagship wetland, Linnunsuo in the Jukajoki catchment. Filmed over 3-4 years the film captures the comebacks of large mammals, birds, moose and many other animals in the food chain. All in all over 205 bird species have come back in 15 years as well as many other species.
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Snowchange
23/12/2024
Guardian Reports on the Wild Forest Reindeer and Best for Xmas
The Guardian has a story on the Wild Forest Reindeer work.
With that we wish the best for the Xmas and 2025 to all!
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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.
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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.
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