Google subsidiary cleared flying squirrel habitat without a permit in Hamina

Google subsidiary Tuike Finland cleared about 1.3 hectares of flying squirrel habitat in Hamina without a permit during a data centre expansion in 2018 and 2019, Yle reports. The trees provided resting places, feeding areas and routes for the animals.

Tuike felled more trees in the Summan area than it had stated in its permit application. Documents obtained by Helsingin Sanomat through a records request show that the work affected park corridors and nesting trees.

Authorities did not file a criminal report at the time. Tuula Tanska, head of nature conservation at Finland’s Permits and Supervision Agency, told Yle that officials concluded the logging had been done inadvertently under the nature conservation law then in force. She said the threshold for opening an investigation is lower under the current law, and a criminal report would have been filed if the work happened now.

The Finnish Nature Conservation Association’s Kymenlaakso district plans to ask police to investigate. Tuike stopped logging and clearing work after a meeting and site visit in early 2020 involving the company, Hamina city and the then Southeast Finland Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment. Tanska said the extent of the logging became clear during the visit and was greater than intended.

In an environmental permit application submitted in March 2025, Tuike acknowledged that valuable natural areas had been destroyed during earlier construction phases. The application concerns an eighth server building in Summan. It says nature areas designated in the local plan to the south and west of the building had been destroyed in previous projects.

Tuike has also sought permission to begin building the new server hall before its environmental permit becomes legally binding, saying it needs to increase capacity as quickly as possible. In an email to Svenska Yle, Google said its current work in Hamina does not affect flying squirrel habitat and that it would continue working with local authorities to protect nature.

Google has operated in Hamina since 2011, owns about 200 hectares of land there and is building its eighth server hall. It plans to build three more.