Google asked agency to conceal records of illegal logging in Hamina

Google asked the then South-East Finland ELY Centre to keep documents about unauthorised logging in Hamina confidential, and the agency agreed in 2020, Yle reported. The logging destroyed flying squirrels’ routes.

The request, made by a Google representative by email, included a map showing the logged area. The documents were classified as confidential on the grounds of trade and professional secrecy.

The logging was carried out by Google subsidiary Tuike Finland as part of data centre expansion work in Summa, Hamina. Yle obtained the same documents as Helsingin Sanomat, which had previously received them through an information request. The ELY Centres are now part of the Finnish Licensing and Supervisory Authority.

The authority’s group manager, Anu Lillunen, said on Friday that the documents’ public status can be reassessed when an information request is made. Following Helsingin Sanomat’s request, documents previously classified as confidential were made public.

At a meeting and inspection in early 2020, Tuike, the City of Hamina and the ELY Centre concluded that the company had not received permission to destroy the flying squirrel forest. Tuike halted logging and clearing work in the area.

Tuike acknowledged in an environmental permit application submitted in March 2025 that valuable natural areas had been destroyed during earlier stages of data centre construction in Hamina. The Kymenlaakso district of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation said this week it plans to ask police to investigate.