During the current year, the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation has set a record with its acquisitions. We bought as many as twenty new areas and additional sections for five areas already protected. We received six areas as a gift.
We reached the milestone of the hundredth conservation area this autumn when the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation purchased the Lintukangas forest in the Vallila region of Kokemäki. It is a grove-like spruce forest of less than five hectares standing there in peace and quiet together with its flying squirrels, an observation that makes the forest an excellent area to mark this milestone.
In addition to the areas announced by the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation this year, we have also acquired several other valuable areas. In the Uusimaa region, we purchased Valkeapuro, an area that includes a grove with an abundant tree stand on the riverbank, which is something that does not appear quite so often in southern Finland. Along with the grove of two hectares, we received four hectares of land returning to its natural state with its deciduous trees and spruce forests, not to mention the clear waters of the Valkoja brook flowing at the southwestern border.
At the upstream of the Porvoo river in Hollola, we purchased an area consisting of four sections, an area called Luhdanniitty. It includes parts of the riverbank, flooding meadows and deciduous forests. The conservation area was expanded in November through a purchase of an additional area at a distance of about a hundred meters. Luhdanniitty is now an area of over eight hectares.
Pyrynmaa, an area placed under protection in Inari, was given an approximately seven and a half additional hectares including, among other things, part of the Ivalojoki riverbank and a meadow of globeflowers. The area, which now covers 88 hectares, was sold by a man called Harald Helander.
The size of the protected Aarnivalkea-Kivisuo area in Kuusamo was increased by more than six hectares. The area is currently made up of 167 hectares. In the Lapua area of the South Ostrobothnia region, we acquired a thirteen-hectare conservation area called Järvineva.
Another donation, which we received in the Mäntyharju area of the South Savolax region, made Kyöpelinvuori an area of more than 18 hectares. Lammashaka, an area of more than half a hectare, was donated in the Hamina area of the Kymenlaakso region. The most recent acquisitions include the Herlevinlähde area of almost ten hectares in Kokkola and the Unhola area of more than four hectares in Kokemäki.
For the time being, the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation has 103 areas under its protection, their total area being 2344 hectares.
