Three sentenced over logging at protected lady’s slipper habitat

Three people have been convicted of nature conservation offences over logging commissioned by Metsä Group at an endangered lady’s slipper habitat in Keminmaa, Yle reports.

The Lapland District Court fined a Metsä Group forestry specialist, the harvester operator who felled the trees and a person who carried out soil preparation 30 day-fines each. The fines ranged from 1,100 to 2,130 euros, depending on their incomes.

The person who prepared the soil was also ordered to pay the state 588 euros, the assessed value of one lady’s slipper. A photograph showed that the plant had been crushed by a tracked machine. The court said it could not determine each defendant’s share in the destruction of the other plants.

The prosecutor had sought compensation from each defendant for their part in the destruction of 150 plants, valued at a total of 88,200 euros.

The court said the forestry specialist had prepared the harvesting instructions and marked the protected areas, but should have reviewed the plants’ locations and suitable growing conditions carefully with the harvester operator before work began. The operator should also have made sure they had sufficiently precise information about the plants’ locations and avoided damaging them or their habitat.

The person who carried out soil preparation had not filed a drainage notification with the then Lapland ELY Centre, a regional authority. The court noted that the person had dug a two-metre-deep ditch, among other measures, to improve growing conditions for trees to be planted.

The soil-preparation worker and another person had arranged a timber sale in the name of an agricultural partnership in 2021. The court acquitted that other person, as well as the worker who collected and stacked the felled trees using a machine.

The Lapland ELY Centre had advised the landowners, who were partners in the agricultural business, in January 2021 to leave the lady’s slipper habitat and its immediate surroundings unlogged in most cases. The guidance called for a buffer zone of at least 20 metres around the plants. Individual trees could still be removed from the zone using a harvester boom, with the trees trimmed outside the buffer.

All defendants denied the charges. The verdicts are not final.