Finland biodiversity restoration efforts are being expanded across state nature reserves in 2026, as Metsähallitus prepares to restore wetlands, forests and waterways while the European Union’s new nature restoration framework moves closer to implementation.
Metsähallitus Parks & Wildlife Finland (Metsähallituksen Luontopalvelut), the public body responsible for managing state-owned protected areas, says this year’s work will include restoring around 1,300 hectares of mires, improving about 21 kilometres of streams, restoring nine springs and removing invasive species from protected sites. The agency also plans to use controlled burning on 172 hectares of forest to support threatened species and to manage around 6,000 hectares of traditional rural biotopes through grazing leases and other cooperation agreements. The stated aim is to improve the condition of habitats, slow the decline of biodiversity and prepare for the EU’s nature restoration targets.
Finland biodiversity restoration focuses on wetlands, streams and forests
The Finnish programme covers several types of habitats that have been affected by past land use, including drained mires, modified streams and forests where natural disturbance has been reduced. In many cases, restoration means blocking or filling drainage ditches, returning water to dried-out areas, removing trees that have grown after drainage, or using controlled burning to recreate conditions that support specialised species.
Wetland restoration is particularly important in Finland because mires store carbon, regulate water flows and provide habitats for birds, insects and plants. Many of these areas were historically drained for forestry or other uses. Rewetting them can help restore their ecological functions, although the results often take years to become visible.
In waterways, the focus is on reversing the effects of dredging, timber floating and forestry-related changes. Restoring streams can improve gravel beds, water flow and shelter for aquatic species. These measures are expected to benefit migratory fish and the freshwater pearl mussel, a threatened species that depends on clean, well-oxygenated rivers and healthy fish populations during part of its life cycle.
Regional projects show how Finland is acting before EU deadlines
The measures are spread across several Finnish regions, giving the programme a strongly local character. In South Karelia, restoration work continues at Siikalahti, one of Finland’s most important inland bird lakes, where overgrowth threatens open-water and wetland habitats.
In Häme, restoration will continue in the Kalevansuo mire in Loppi, part of the Komio area. Previous work removed trees that had grown after drainage. This autumn, the remaining measures are expected to include filling and damming ditches across roughly 35 hectares of wooded mire.
In Central Finland, Heikinpuro in Salamajärvi National Park will be restored during the summer, following earlier work on the nearby Koirajoki river system. The project aims to improve the ecological condition of waters affected by previous land use.
In Lapland, Metsähallitus plans to restore mires, streams and forests in several locations, including Kattilajärvi in Kolari and Kirakkaoja in Sodankylä. Water will also be redirected back to protected mire areas at Nikkilänaapa in Simo, while restoration will continue on private protected areas in Ranua and Tervola. Controlled burning is planned in forest areas at Riisitunturi in Posio and Martimonaapa in Simo.
Controlled burning and grazing return old ecological processes
Some restoration measures are not based only on removing damage, but on bringing back ecological processes that have become rare. Metsähallitus says controlled burning will be used on 172 hectares of forest in 2026, while traditional rural biotopes will remain under management across around 6,000 hectares through grazing leases and other agreements. In Pirkanmaa, Metsähallitus plans to restore dry pine forest at Pitkäkangas in Ylöjärvi through controlled burning over just over five hectares. Such burns create dead wood, open habitats and varied forest structures that many insects, fungi and birds need.
In Ostrobothnia, work on Halsö island in Korsnäs will prepare a new grazing area. In Southwest Finland, the Kulju area in Uusikaupunki will be cleared as a traditional rural biotope so that sheep can be used for nature management in summer 2027. Grazing can help preserve open meadows and coastal habitats that would otherwise become overgrown.
In North Savo, planned work includes removing invasive species, preparing a slash-and-burn field, building traditional fencing and mowing regionally valuable meadows. In the expanded areas of Tiilikkajärvi National Park, Metsähallitus will restore around 128 hectares of mires in Haravamäki, Kuikkasuo and Löytynsuo, restore a drained spring environment and improve three streams with a combined length of about two kilometres.
River restoration targets threatened mussels and migratory fish
Some of the most significant water restoration work is planned in North Ostrobothnia, where rehabilitation continues on the Livojoki river, a tributary of the Iijoki, and nearby streams. The upper section of the Livojoki was mechanically modified about 75 years ago for timber floating, after crossing what was once among Europe’s largest clear-cut areas.
The current restoration work aims to return parts of the river closer to their natural condition. Planned measures include reconnecting old dry channels across about seven hectares, building around 500 spawning sites for migratory fish and restoring roughly seven kilometres of streams affected by forestry. These measures are designed to improve conditions for the freshwater pearl mussel and migratory fish, two indicators of healthier river ecosystems.
In North Karelia, work will continue in the Kesonsuo protected area, where mires have been restored since 2010. Trees that had spread onto open mire areas have already been cut and removed in some sites, while ditches will be blocked during the summer. Additional small mire restoration projects and stream improvements are planned on both state land and private protected areas.
Finland’s restoration work fits into a wider EU biodiversity shift
Finland’s programme comes as EU countries prepare for the implementation of the Nature Restoration Law, which requires restoration measures on at least 20 percent of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030 and sets longer-term targets for degraded ecosystems. Member states can choose the measures they use, but they must prepare national restoration plans showing how targets will be met.
For Finland, the challenge is substantial because the country has large forest and wetland areas, many of them shaped by forestry, drainage and earlier resource use. The restoration work announced for 2026 does not solve biodiversity loss on its own, but it shows how public land management is being adapted to a policy environment in which restoration is becoming a core part of nature protection.
The Nordic relevance is also clear. Finland, Sweden and other northern European countries have some of Europe’s largest remaining semi-natural habitats, but they also face pressure from forestry, infrastructure, climate change and land-use conflicts. Finland’s current measures suggest that biodiversity policy is moving from conservation alone toward active repair of damaged ecosystems.
