Nature protection and biodiversity - Why care? (Finland)

Finland's geographical and climatic location in the northeastern corner of Europe may not favour high species diversity. Despite this, the country has a special role in protecting European biodiversity. Finland has a particular responsibility for protecting many nature types such as mires, boreal forests and inland waters and their related species. Compared to most other European countries, Finland still has large areas of relatively natural-like habitats. Furthermore, the country continues to rely heavily on ecosystem services; not only on provisioning services but also on regulating and cultural services.

Against this background, and taking into consideration the observed and predicted impacts of climate change on northern nature, biodiversity should be a high priority issue in Finland. Partly, it already is, but mostly from the viewpoint of natural resources. More work needs to be done to make sure all actors in the society understand the importance of halting the loss of biodiversity.