Pyhäjoki logged 100 hectares before data centre assessment
Wednesday 21st October 2026 on 06:00 in
Finland
The municipality of Pyhäjoki logged about 100 hectares of forest for a planned Hyperco data centre before an environmental impact assessment began, Yle reports. The assessment started in July 2025 and was completed on June 17, 2026.
Satellite images show that the logging took place during the winter of 2024 to 2025. The project area assessed was 240 hectares, and could accommodate as many as 10 data centre buildings. Around 100 construction workers are now working on the project.
Hanna Halmeenpää, chair of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, said the timing was problematic because environmental impacts should be assessed and commented on in advance. “The law may have been followed, but this is morally wrong,” she said.
Pyhäjoki municipal manager Matti Soronen said the municipality had acted lawfully. At the time of the logging, he said, it was not yet clear whether the planned data centre would require an environmental impact assessment. He also said the logging on municipal land covered less than the 200-hectare threshold set by law.
Preparations for the data centre began in spring 2024. A preliminary agreement on land sales between the municipality and Hyperco was announced that December, and the logging was completed in February 2025. The parties confirmed land sales covering about 130 hectares in summer 2025, after the trees had been felled.
The data centre’s zoning plan was drawn up while the logging was under way and was approved in January 2026. Halmeenpää said permanently changing land use through logging before zoning was complete was also problematic. Environmental law professor Kai Kokko said the project appeared to have moved ahead of the zoning process, which should allow people to participate and influence the outcome.
Soronen said the forest work had to be done in winter because parts of the land were boggy and could not be logged in summer. Starting early also helped the project’s schedule.
Hyperco’s director responsible for permitting, Arto Hirvonen, said the company knew about the municipality’s logging plans in December 2024. He said the municipality, as landowner, was responsible for clearing the trees, and that Hyperco had carried out no work before the environmental assessment.