Snowchange
07/01/2025
New Trap Camera Documentary Released
A new short documentary filmed with several trap cameras has been released. It focuses on the boreal year and seasonal changes in Linnunsuo wetland in North Kareria, Finland.
Ecologists Alicia Jarma and Antoine Scherer present a 8 minute documentary about the changes in the wildlife and ecology of a Snowchange flagship wetland, Linnunsuo in the Jukajoki catchment. Filmed over 3-4 years the film captures the comebacks of large mammals, birds, moose and many other animals in the food chain. All in all over 205 bird species have come back in 15 years as well as many other species.
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Snowchange
23/12/2024
Guardian Reports on the Wild Forest Reindeer and Best for Xmas
The Guardian has a story on the Wild Forest Reindeer work.
With that we wish the best for the Xmas and 2025 to all!
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Snowchange
16/12/2024
ICCA Saami Forest in Storymaps
The Sámi forest of Alttokangas, 72 ha in size, is located in the municipality of Inari and is the first ICCA (Indigenous and Community Conserved Area) in the Sámi Home Area. ICCAs are protected by Indigenous Peoples and/or local communities themselves and contain important biodiversity. ICCAs can be found across the world. Now a new StoryMaps summarizes the conservation and restoration efforts in this first-ever ICCA for the Sámi in Finland.
The Sámi forest of Alttokangas was approved as an ICCA in 2024. In 2023 Finnish NGO Snowchange Cooperative got funding from the The Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation for a project titled: Snowchange Arctic Rewilding: Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge Rewilding of Boreal Forests in Finland.
In consultation with the local Sámi Alttokangas was chosen as one of the project sites. To-date the participating Sámi and Snowchange researchers are finding their integrated approach to conserving and restoring Alttokangas to be a meaningful new method.
In 2023 questions about the conservation status of Alttokangas emerged. What mechanism could both protect the forest and safeguard Sámi rights, land-use and their role in protecting the biodiversity of the area. The Sámi families involved want to protect Alttokangas forest in a way that includes the traditional Sámi knowledge, land-use, history and observations.
As part of the cooperation in Alttokangas ecological restoration activities have started in the forest. Here we discuss the two major activities so far – fencing off small plots of land to monitor vegetation recovery, and a prescribed burn.
In just two years the project has achieved the establishment of the first ICCA site in the Sámi Home Area, launched a comprehensive ecological inventory and monitoring practice, and kick-started the practical restoration of this important Sámi site.
We share messages from this work in a new StoryMap in Sámi, Finnish, Swedish and English to advance the understanding of Sámi-led conservation and restoration in the European North.
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Snowchange
03/12/2024
Climate Breakthrough Expands the Rewilding Programme Across the Boreal From Finland into North America
Climate Breakthrough Award will make it possible to enable peatland restoration and protection on several sites from Finland to North American boreal. Climate Breakthrough Award program is uniquely designed for social change leaders to develop, launch, and scale their new initiatives with breakthrough potential to address climate change. Snowchange work will scale up in Arctic Circle area in Finland, Minnesota, Canada and Alaska on peatlands.
Over the next three years, the Climate Breakthrough program will provide a $4 million funding package to develop, launch, and scale boldest new initiatives with breakthrough potential to address climate change. All in all four teams and leaders have been chosen for 2024.
This means initiatives that could significantly reduce global annual greenhouse gas emissions, affect entire industries or regions of the world, and materially change the lives of tens of millions of people within ten years of launch.
“I’m honored to welcome Alex, Eriel, Kimiko, and Tero into the Climate Breakthrough Award program. They exemplify the kind of visionary leadership and thinking that lies at the heart of our mission. We’re honored to support them in bringing their most ambitious climate action ideas to life,” said Savanna Ferguson, Executive Director of Climate Breakthrough.
Climate Breakthrough Award associated with Snowchange Landscape Rewilding Programme will establish a pan-boreal network of Restoration Hubs on peatlands with the following territories to start with
• Boreal peatlands at the Arctic Circle in Finland, including stepping stones ecosystems in Kemijärvi, Sodankylä, Savukoski and especially in Ranua. Additionally we will investigate the role of cultural landscapes in a wind power investments in Ranua
• Northern Minnesota and the St. Louis River peatlands
• Hudson Bay ecoregion in Canada
• Central Alaska with pilot areas currently being discussed
Launched in 2016, the Climate Breakthrough Award program is uniquely designed for social change leaders to develop, launch, and scale their new initiatives with breakthrough potential to address climate change.
The programme has supported in the past 22 individuals and one team of awardees. Climate Breakthrough Awardees have collectively secured over $236 million in follow-on funding from more than 90 different funders to advance their work. Combined, their Climate Breakthrough initiatives have the potential to reduce global annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 5.3 gigatons by 2030.
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Snowchange
13/11/2024
Onkamo Restoration Plan 1 is released
Onkamo Restoration Plan 1 is released to the public. It contains, in Finnish a number of recommendations of how a whole lake system could be restored. Additionally it recounts some history and ICCA status of the lakes.
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Snowchange
17/09/2024
A New Documentary Film Released from Koitajoki
An American production company PrettyGoodProductions and Snowchange have finished a new documentary film about Koitajoki after three years of work. It is free to watch online.
Seining for a Song is a documentary by the American film director Thomas Miller, which deals with the history, culture and nature of Koitajoki in Eastern Finland.
The focus of the film is the country’s only river seining tradition, which renews the spawning areas of the endangered whitefish population. At the same time, the culture of the villages has changed and the restoration and rewilding efforts are under way.
The film is part of the cooperative’s extensive restoration activities in Koitajoki.
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Snowchange
13/09/2024
BBC Reports on Snowchange Rewilding
BBC Future is running a large feature story on Linnunsuo and the Landscape Rewilding Programme.
Finland's Linnunsuo wetland used to be a barren "moonscape". A local fishing community has transformed it into a biodiverse haven and an important carbon sink. BBC has more.
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Snowchange
15/08/2024
Mika Honkalinna Recognized with a Namesake Conservation Area at 60
Mika Honkalinna (born 8 August 1964 in Anjala) is a Finnish wildlife photographer and an author. Since 2018 Mika has been collaborating with Snowchange on visualizing and advancing the Landscape Rewilding Programme. In total Mika has inventoried and photographed dozens peatlands, forests, rivers and lakes in the programme. In August 2024 Mika turns 60 and in order to celebrate this Snowchange has decided to name Kiuasvaara Peatland and OGF forest in Pudasjärvi, totaling 18 hectares, as a Mika Honkalinna namesake site to celebrate Mika's life work and achievements for nature and Finnish traditions.
He was born and in Kymenlaakso, South-East Finland, where he lived much of his life, but at the moment he lives in Liminka, in North Ostrobothnia. Mika has said of his art:
"My photos and my stories are born in the midst of northern coniferous forests and swamps and often in the middle of northern winter, snow and ice, inspired by the survival and the aesthetics of winter. Most often, my illustrated stories are intertwined around the relationship between men and nature and the attempts to understand them. The sharp fluctuation of seasonal variations, the polar night in the winter, the light summer nights and the multi-faceted landscape of Fennoscandia create fascinating conditions for photographing and spending time outdoors."
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Snowchange
26/07/2024
A Large OGF Forest Joins from Sodankylä
A complex of four sites from Northern Sodankylä has joined the Landscape Rewilding Programme. The whole area is an outstanding example of north boreal old growth forest located in Sodankylä, Lapland. It has 175-186-year-old boreal forests and peatlands. It is appr. 176 hectares as a total area.
The site was included into the Landscape Rewilding Programme in July 2024. These old growth forests contain an approx. 175-year-old pine and spruce forest as well as deciduous timber. The area is a very representative entity of the almost untouched northern boreal forest.
The area serves as a connecting ecological corridor between the Posoaava and Koitelainen Nature 2000 areas.
The 92,358-hectare Posoaapa and its parts, Tenniöaava and Kaita-aava, are the biggest peatland complexes in Peräpohjola. Rivers divide the area into several large parts.
Both Peräpohjola and Metsä-Lappi peatland belong to the Pomoaavan-Iso Postoaava swamp area. Thus, the area is a transition zone of swamp types.
The forests in the area are almost entirely over 200-year-old natural spruces. There are also ultra-alkaline rocks in the area. The Pomokaira area belongs to the northern Peräpohjola aapa peatlands. The area is very important as a nesting area for northern waterfowl.
The Koitelainen area of 48,938 hectares is a large marshy watershed between Luiro and Kitinen. Swamps are mainly fens. The versatile meadows located mainly in the southern part cover approx. 3% of the area.
The streams are bordered by willows. There are almost 100 km of small streams in the area. Forests grow in islands. All the forest types of Northern Finland are represented on the slopes of Koitelainen. The forests are mainly natural spruce forests over 200 years old. There is a lot of rotten wood. There are ultra-alkaline rocks in the area.
Koitelaiskaira is one of the most representative swamp areas. It has remained wilderness. The area is a very important nesting and living area for endangered birds and mammals. The bird species is diverse.
The site is on the list of internationally significant wetlands, i.e. the so-called Ramsar site and an internationally important bird area (IBA).
The Kevitsa mining area is located in the immediate vicinity of Koitelaiskaira.
Snowchange
05/07/2024
Ellala Peatlands in Ranua Open a New Strategic Landscape
Ellala peatlands in Ranua, slightly south of the Arctic Circle, are both amazingly intact and biodiverse peatlands and impacted by peat mining. Snowchange focuses in the region to support large wilderness areas, local communities and water quality.
Ellala Peatlands are a massive boreal carbon sink and store. In June and July 2024 Snowchange has worked with local landowners, organizations such as Luiminka River Association and conservation groups to initiate a new strategic level rewilding landscape. Totaling at appr. 500 hectares, both large intact peatlands, recovering boreal forests and peat mining sites to be restored have been included into the whole.
These actions support Litokaira, the largest intact wilderness area south of the Arctic Circle in Europe, totaling 33,000 hectares. On the Western side of Litokaira Snowchange has already over 330 hectares of intact peatlands supporting Litokaira and its wilderness histories.
These actions support local reindeer herders and local communities for years to come.
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