Press Release: Protection of an important bird area: the Commission acts against Finland on mires of Kemihaara

The European Commission has decided to send a letter of formal notice (first warning letter) to Finland for failure to protect an important bird area called mires of Kemihaara in north-east Finland. The Finnish authorities recently granted a construction permit to the Vuotos power plant and artificial lake project which would drown approximately 250 square kilometres of mires and forests around the upper Kemijoki river, including the mires of Kemihaara where there is a great number of bird species listed in Annex I to the Wild Birds Directive.