Betreff: Taiga-Info: The destruction of Saami forests in Finnish Lapland started again
Dear all,
Here is some new information on the situation in Finnish Lapland, where the
Finnish Forest and Park Service recently resumed logging in one of the
important reindeer winter grazing areas.
Hannu Hyvönen at independent Finnish media cooperative Signs of life has
compiled this information. You can reach Hannu directly at
[url]mailto:
hannu@elonmerkki.net[/url].
Regards,
Birthe Weijola
http://www.taigarescue.org
http://www.taigarescue.org/ru
Press release and video reportage 5.6.2007
by Media cooperative Signs of Life
http://elonmerkki.net
==========================================
The destruction of Saami forests in Finnish Lapland started again
The long lasting forestry conflict in Finnish Lappland is again in a very
urgent state. The Finnish state owned company, Metsähallitus,
has started large scale logging operations in the home area of indigenous
Saami people on the 14th of May, 2007.
These logging have been critisized for the following reasons:
-there is no solution yet for the land ownership conflict between
indigenous Saami
people and the Finnish state.
-the Finnish state has not proven to be the actual owner of the forests
that it is logging right now.
-the clear-cutting style of logging ancient forests in the extreme north
of Europe cannot be accepted from an ecological and micro-climatical point
of view.
-the loggings destroy the very basis of the culturally important Saami
free grazing reindeer herding tradition
-the loggings waste the ancient forests and its wood and leave less
possibilities for future truly sustainable continuous cover forestry
without destructive clear cutting.
Among others Union of Ecoforestry urged Finnish
parliament to stop the logging immediately and distributed for
parliament groups the documentary movie Last yoik in Saami forests
(
http://elonmerkki.net). Until now there has not been any public reaction
by the Finnish government. The silence in Finnish media also continues.
The director of the movie, Hannu Hyvönen, expressed his feelings about the
on-going loggings recently: "It is quite easy for us to update this sad
turn-up in the documentary movie, but we cannot update these forests which
are now again cutted down."
The documentary movie can also be loaded here:
http://video.elonmerkki.net/last_yoik.mp4
More info and links:
http://elonmerkki.net
The short history of this conflict with video clips from the movie
==================================================================
1. Centre of Saamiland
In northern Lapland, over one thousand kilometres north of Finland’s
capital, Helsinki, lies the largest remaining wilderness in Western
Europe. These fells and forests are the homeland of Northern Europe’s only
indigenous people, the Saami. The land rights issue in the Saami homeland
is unsolved.
Look the introduction of the scenerys videoclip
http://video.elonmerkki.net/videoreport ... aisema.mp4
2. Pulping the Saami forests?
Traditional reindeer herding is the one essential basis of
Saami culture.
During the cold Arctic winter months, old-growth forests provide a
lifeline for grazing reindeer. On the old trees grows the arboreal hanging
lichen that is an essential wintertime food for the reindeer.
However, the Finnish state-owned forestry company, Metsähallitus is
destroying important winter grazing forests that are vital to the
reindeer. These old-growth forests are harvested for production in the
Finnish pulp and paper industry.
Look the forestry yoik of the movie Last yoik in Saamiforests:
http://video.elonmerkki.net/videoreport ... sjoiku.mp4
3. Who owns the land?
One big and still unsolved issue is the ownership of these forests.
Finnnish state cannot prove its ownership and still continues
logging activities. Look the comment of Heikki Hyvärinen, the lawyer of
Saami parliament
http://video.elonmerkki.net/videoreportage/varas.mp4
4. Greenpeace arrive
The long-lasting conflict between Saami reindeer herding interests and
government-owned industrial forestry flared up in the spring of 2005.
Local Saami reindeer herders joined environmental organizations and
started an international campaign to save the reindeer grazing forests
from logging.
Look the interview in the camp:
http://video.elonmerkki.net/videoreport ... 0tulee.mp4