Agency sets nationwide flying squirrel rules, forestry group objects

Finland’s Permit and Supervisory Authority has issued national guidance on protecting flying squirrel habitats during logging, prompting criticism from the agricultural and forestry producers’ association MTK, Yle reports.

The Nature Conservation Act prohibits the destruction or degradation of flying squirrel breeding and resting places. The authority, known as LVV, published its guidance online in October to clarify how the law should be applied during forestry work.

The guidance calls for at least half a hectare of forest to be preserved around nesting and resting trees, along with several hectares of suitable forest nearby. The retained forest should remain as continuous as possible, provide shelter, food and movement routes, and include wooded connections to surrounding forests. A line of individual trees is not considered sufficient, and logging plans must account for wind resistance.

MTK forestry director Marko Mäki-Hakola says the authority has unexpectedly changed its interpretation of the law. He argues that requiring half a hectare of untouched forest in every case would amount to compulsory protection. MTK estimates the guidance could cost forest owners between five billion and 10 billion euros in lost income. The law provides for compensation when protection causes significant harm to landowners.

Mäki-Hakola has called on LVV to publish its estimates of the flying squirrel population and the number of nesting places so the financial effects can be assessed transparently.

LVV environmental department unit head Mari Rajala says the interpretation of the law has not changed. The aim, she says, is to make enforcement consistent across the country. Previously, 13 regional Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment oversaw flying squirrel protections; they were consolidated into LVV at the start of the year.

Rajala says the guidance sets out the criteria for ensuring that breeding and resting places are not destroyed or degraded. She says it is intended to make enforcement more even and predictable, rather than to prescribe how logging must be carried out in flying squirrel habitats.

Inconsistent enforcement has raised concerns about legal certainty for landowners, forestry professionals and authorities. Police are investigating, among other things, the role of an authority in a clear-cut in a flying squirrel forest in Jyväskylä several years ago. In Luhanka, a landowner was convicted in June over the destruction of a flying squirrel forest and ordered to pay substantial compensation. The landowner said the authority had not provided clear instructions on limiting the logging; the district court ruled that three hectares of forest should have been left standing.

Anna Tomperi, a nature management specialist at the Päijänne Forest Management Association, says forestry professionals are still unsure how the boundaries of flying squirrel habitats should be drawn under the guidance. She says they need support and practical advice, including visits to forests by the authorities. Mäki-Hakola fears that restrictions will become categorical, whereas previously decisions were made cautiously on a case-by-case basis.