Policy advice

Finland is renewing its Nature Conservation Act and developing a new biodiversity strategy action plan. Both processes will have far-reaching implications for environmental policy and governance in Finland. It is therefore of paramount importance that the best available scientific knowledge is taken into account and used in their preparation.

To support the relevant processes, REC has prepared a Policy Brief which you may download (in Finnish).

In brief, REC recommends that:

• A clear strategy for monitoring biodiversity is established as part of the national biodiversity strategy action plan.
• A clear obligation to monitor biodiversity is included in the Nature Conservation Act.
• The need for biodiversity statistics will also be included in the Statistics Act.
• A new biodiversity centre should be created to coordinate, analyse and publish statistics on biodiversity.

These recommendations are directly based on REC’s compilation of all available long-term observation series on biodiversity change in Finland. Our data reveals that environmental monitoring in Finland is fragmented, under-resourced, and vulnerable to short-sighted prioritization.