Viurusuo mire in Outokumpu town, eastern Finland, has been known to be an interesting eccentric bog since the dissertation of Kimmo Tolonen in 1967. With respect to its structure it is a typical eastern Finnish eccentric bog, but its vegetation greatly resembles the more oceanic bogs in western Finland with Calluna vulgaris, Sphagnum cuspidatum and S. tenellum as dominant species in the central parts of the mire. The largest part of the mire (about 300 hectares) is untouched. There are ditches in the northern marginal area, but the southern margin (2.5 km) with abundant groundwater seepage and some springs is in a natural state. There are also two ponds in the central parts of the mire. The bird fauna is rich, with a number of threatened species like Larus ridibundus and Cygnus cygnus. A number of regionally threatened vascular plant and moss species occur, with as most remarkable one the northern moss species Cinclidium subrotundum at its second southernmost locality.
In 1978 the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture (at that time also responsible for nature conservation) agreed that Viurusuo mire was to be used for peat mining. However, already then its biodiversity values were assessed to be high.
In 1995 Vapo Oy (a state owned company for the use of peat and timber) submitted an application to start peat extraction in Viurusuo mire and to discharge the waste waters into Lake Sysmäjärvi. In 2000 the permission for peat mining and waste water discharge was given, but in 2001 the administrative court of Vaasa declined the permission and returned the case to be re-assessed by the Eastern Finland Environmental Permit Authority.
In spite of all talk of the peat industry about sustainability and wise use, a new application from Vapo followed. In her objections, the North Karelia Regional Environment Centre showed the harmfulness of peat mining in Viurusuo mire and also local inhabitants and the Finnish Nature Conservation Association made critical statements about the project.
In 2003 the Eastern Finland Environmental Permit Authority declined the permit for peat mining, as did the administrative court in 2005. Vapo Oy made an appeal to the Supreme Court, which in 2006 reversed the decisions of the lower courts and returned the case to the Eastern Finland Environmental Permit Authority for a new process.
All in all, in the province of North Karelia 115 000 hectares of peatlands outside of nature reserves are technically suitable for peat mining. While the total area used for peat mining in the whole of Finland is currently some 60 000 hectares, it is clear that it is possible to find an alternative site for Viurusuo mire without any complication.
Unfortunately, the environmental legislation of Finland is deficient. Biodiversity values of mires cannot be taken into account in the permit processes, only impacts on the environment. Therefore, in the case of Viurusuo, the main emphasis has been whether the two ponds in the mire are so unique and valuable that because of them the whole mire should be protected from peat mining. The question thus is whether peat mining threatens two little ponds covering altogether 1,5 hectares, whereas 300 ha of really unique bog are not being considered. This is ridiculous in the light of what is really important for biodiversity conservation in Viurusuo mire.
The process is starting again and the North Karelia Environment Centre as well as the North Karelia region of the Finnish Nature Conservation Association together with local inhabitants have again raised strict (and detailed, covering some 30 pages) objections against peat mining in Viurusuo mire.
Raimo Heikkilä
Finnish Environment Institute,
Biodiversity Research Programme
raimo.heikkila@ymparisto.fi
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Indonesia will not allow oil palm growers to cut primary forests for establishing plantations. The country is set to overtake Malaysia this year as the world’s largest palm oil supplier and plans to add 1.5 million hectares of the crop over the next three years. Companies want to plant more oil palm trees as prices of the vegetable oil, used also as biofuel, cooking oil and to make soap, have almost doubled in the past year on surging demand not only from the EU (biodiesel), but even more from China and India, the world’s biggest buyers of palm oil.
The Indonesia government plans to add 7 million hectares of plantations by 2011, according to its biofuels plan. The country is trying to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases, 75 percent of which result from deforestation and associated peat fires.
China National Offshore Oil Corp., the nation’s third- largest oil company, together with PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology will invest $5.5 billion in an eight-year program for biofuel projects in Indonesia. The two companies and Hong Kong Energy Ltd. will invest in the planting of crops to make biofuels in Papua and Borneo.
It has been pointed out that the government rule that forbids cutting of primary forests for plantations isn’t followed by many district and regional governments. Oil palm production in Indonesia has been a major reason for deforestation and the peat fires that terrorise the region.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/
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At the 3th Global Botanic Gardens Congress, 16-20 April 2007, Wuhan China, with the motto “Building a sustainable future: the role of Botanic Gardens” the National Botanic Garden of Belgium has encouraged the 954 participants from 67 countries to go peat free.
The National Botanic Garden in Meise was one of the first gardens in the world that systematically applied alternatives to peat. Glasshouse Manager Viviane Leyman: “The continued use of peat by horticulture is dreadful, especially as excellent alternatives exist. We grow over 10,000 different types of plants in peat-free coco-fibre compost. We believe that it is counter-intuitive to grow plants in peat compost because it directly endangers peat bogs and the plants and animals that live there”.
“Gardeners all over Belgium should demand peat-free alternatives and if they are not available in their local store they should request it. Many retailers will only start stocking peat alternatives as routine if there is demand, and that is up to every responsible gardener to create.”
As could be foreseen, the Belgian substrate federation BPF reacted immediately and accused the Botanic Garden of “not fully correct information”. Next to the meanwhile classic fallacies that are at length discussed in this Newsletter, the press release of the Belgian “Potgrondfederatie” contained an argument of hitherto unknown stupidity:
“Peat is almost 10,000 years old and its conversion to CO2 is very slow because it is a stable product. In contrast cocos (coir) decays more rapidly and produces more CO2.”
Maybe the International Peat Society should start a campaign to inform her industrial supporters about the different climatic effect of releasing carbon from a long-term store (where without exploitation the carbon would have been conserved for eternity) and releasing carbon from a rapidly cycling supply (from where it soon would be released anyhow)...
From
420 innovative environmental projects, of which 187 were invited to exhibit
in the garden of the presidential palace in Berlin, the president of German Federal Republic Horst Köhler selected 20
for a more in depth personal orientation. Here he discusses the perspectives
of “paludiculture”: the cultivation of energy crops and raw materials on rewetted
degraded peatlands.
German President Horst Köhler with in his hand information material on alder and peatmoss cultivation. Photo: Greta Gaudig, 6 June 2007
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