Tervola bans commercial tours on nature trail as visitor numbers surge

Tervola municipality has banned tourism companies from bringing paying customers to the Kätkävaara nature trail, Yle reports. Some companies have followed the ban, while others continue to sell excursions to the trail.

The ban was introduced last year because the trail received public funding whose terms do not allow commercial use. Rising visitor numbers have also put pressure on the trail’s toilets and firewood supplies.

Ilari Kotajärvi, an activity services entrepreneur from Rovaniemi, said he contacted Tervola last year to ask whether he could bring customers to Kätkävaara. The municipality told him that bringing paying customers to the trail was prohibited.

Kotajärvi decided not to include Kätkävaara in his excursions. He said he did not understand why some other companies continued to sell trips there despite the ban.

“I have never understood having a ban without monitoring whether it is followed,” Kotajärvi said.

Tervola municipal manager Mika Simoska confirmed that the ban was issued last year. He said it was based on the conditions attached to external funding received for the trail, including Leader funding made up of money from the European Union, the Finnish state and municipalities.

“The trail has received external funding intended for projects serving the public interest. The trail must not be used by companies,” Simoska said.

Simoska said companies that had contacted the municipality had been informed of the ban. He hoped that businesses might eventually be allowed to use the trail if they agreed to compensate the municipality for firewood and waste management, although it remains unclear whether this would be possible.

The municipality put up a prohibition sign last year on the wall of a maintenance building in the car park. The ban is not mentioned at the trail entrance or on its information boards.

Tervola’s technical director, Janne Pekkarinen, said he had not known about the ban when Yle contacted him. Decisions concerning the trail appear to have been made by the municipality’s administrative department, while the technical department has handled matters including enlarging the car park, building a new maintenance facility and maintaining the trail’s firewood supplies and toilets.

Pekkarinen estimated that annual visitor numbers may have increased from around 400 or 500 in previous years to between 3,000 and 4,000 today. The estimate is based on cars seen in the car park and names recorded in the visitor book. A visitor counter has been purchased but is not yet working.

The municipality visits the trail two or three times a week to bring firewood and maintain the toilets. It does not otherwise have staff at Kätkävaara or the resources to monitor the ban.

“When it comes to monitoring, we are quite powerless. We have to trust that companies will respect a place intended for public benefit, not commercial use,” Pekkarinen said.

Maintenance work costs the municipality an estimated 15,000 euros a year, excluding wages. A similar problem was reported in neighbouring Rovaniemi, where a shelter maintained by a village association was affected by groups brought by safari companies and a prohibition sign was put up.