THE FINNISH ENVIRONMENT 11en | 2007 ENVIRONMENTAL Our Shared Environment 2020 PROTECTION Environmental Programme for Uusimaa Region Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre THE FINNISH Environment 11en | 2007 Our Shared Environment 2020 Environmental Programme for Uusimaa Region Helsinki 2007 Uusimaa Regional Enviroment Centre THE FINNISH ENVIRONMENT 11en | 2007 Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre Layout: Osmo Leppälä / St. MIR Cover photo: Helena Inkeri/Gorilla Inside photos: • Leena Eerola/Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre: p. 8 Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans) p.16 Examining flying squirrel droppings; p.17 Threatened Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus)/ Spring Pasque flower (Pulsatilla vernalis)/ European Skipper (Thymelicus lineola); p.18 Girl with alien species Swamp Lantern (Lysichiton americanus); p. 20 Shore at Lappohjanranta, Hanko; p.23 Snowy brook and White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) • Erno Forsström/SYKEKuvat: p.7 Underpass; p. 8 Shopping mall and tractor; p.14 Market/construction work/ Road surveyor; p.18 Töölönlahti Bay, Helsinki; p. 20 Mowing the grass/Housing estate; p.24 Kamppi building site, Helsinki; s.26 Solar panel; p.27 Shop/Waste collection point/ Elielinaukio, Helsinki; p.28 Ruoholahti, Helsinki/Factory/ Traffic; p. 29 Tram • Jani Ketola/Kuvakori: p.23 Wake • Keijo Lotvonen/Kuvakori: p.15 Train • Osmo Leppälä/St. MIR: p. 2 Field with power lines; p. 6 Island in the sea • Sakari Manninen/City of Vantaa: p. 12 Kartanonkoski, Vantaa • Tuomas Marttila/Kuvakori: p. 7 Chimney • Tero Sivula/Kuvakori: p. 7 Field with bales; p.10 Car in floodwater; p.21 Power plant • Tero Taponen/Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre: p. 9 Intersection on Kehä III ring road; p.19 Sipoonkorpi wilderness area; p. 22 Lake Kanteleenjärvi, Pukkila; p. 23 South Harbour, Helsinki; p. 24 Child and bulldozer/Ice forming; p.25 Quarrying, Långmossabergen, Vantaa; p.29 Canoeing/Basket of wild mushrooms; p.31 Aspen Maps: Riitta Tornivaara-Ruikka/ Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre Also available on the Internet at: www.environment.fi/publications Edita Prima Ltd., Helsinki 2007 ISBN 978-952-11-2903-2 (pbk.) ISBN 978-952-11-2904-9 (PDF) ISSN 1238-7312 (print) ISSN 1796-1637 (online) 4 FOREWORD Climate change is a global phenomenon, significantly influenced by emissions, energy production, and consumption. In the Uusimaa Region, Finland’s only metropolitan area, we must be prepared for climate change and promote sustainable development by making the right decisions about land use, traffic and housing. The challenge is how to combine the necessary short-term decisions with longer-term planning that will create ecologically, economically, socially and culturally sustainable conditions for the future. The Uusimaa Environmental Programme 2020 contains the targets for ensuring balanced development of the region on the terms of nature and man. With this pro- gramme we want to provide the various actors in the region with a versatile foun- dation of environmental policy on which to base their plans and decisions. The programme has been compiled through interaction with regional stakeholders on a broad front. In the Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre, the programme will guide our future activities and provide a background against which to choose focal areas. In order to allocate resources correctly it is important to be aware of the changes that are going on in the operating environment. I wish to express my most sincere thanks to all those who have contributed to the work of compiling the Environmental Programme and to the dialogue involved. Our cooperation has been productive and it has shown the breadth and depth of interest in developing our region to achieve a better living environment and to preserve the nature of our region. My warmest thanks for their contribution to preparing the programme go to project co-ordinator Hannele Ahponen, to the project team members, Deputy Director Rolf Nyström, Senior Inspector Matts Finnlund, co-ordinator Johan Sundberg, Division Manager Eeva-Riitta Puomio and Information Officer Marja-Liisa Torniainen, as well as to the whole staff of the Regional Environment Centre. Helsinki, April 2007 Leena Saviranta Director, Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre 5 6 CONTENTS Foreword..............................................................................................................................5 The state of the environment in Uusimaa Region .....................................................8 Our common goal is to combat climate change and to be prepared to counter its impacts ..................................................................................11 Developing community structure and the living environment .............................12 The community and the living environment ........................................................13 Reconciling the needs of land use and traffic .......................................................14 Conserving biodiversity ..................................................................................................17 Nature conservation areas, natural habitat types and species ..............................17 The ecological network and urban nature .............................................................18 Improving the quality of the environment and reducing the environmental load ..........................................................................................................20 Reducing the load on waters and sustainable use of water resources ..................20 Protection of soil and groundwater .......................................................................24 Air protection .........................................................................................................26 Waste management.................................................................................................27 Environmental management in business and industry ........................................27 Environmental information to facilitate decision making .....................................28 Programme implementation and monitoring ..........................................................29 Documentation page ......................................................................................................30 7 The state of the environment in Uusimaa Region The environment of the Uusimaa Region is char- a load on waters, as there are still 100 000 inhabit- acterised by great biodiversity. The soil is varied ants in the Uusimaa region living outside the reach and supports the variety of different species of of municipal sewer systems. Strong action is being fauna and flora is wide. The coast, the sea area taken to restore waters to a natural state, but there and the water bodies form a valuable part of this are still many lakes, bays and rivers in need of environment. The region has two sides: it has an rehabilitation. old cultural landscape and rural farming areas, but The amount of traffic and carbon dioxide emis- it also has a modern urban structure and serves as sions from traffic have risen sharply since the be- a national traffic hub. ginning of the millennium. In addition, air traffic The Helsinki Metropolitan Area has the larg- causes considerable noise nuisance as well as car- est concentration of population in the country. A bon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide, sulphur significant part of Finland’s business and industry, dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions 30 per cent of jobs and 25 per cent of construction is from industrial plants requiring an environmental concentrated in the Uusimaa region. In 2007, there permit fell in the late 1990’s, but since the year 2000 are about 1.5 million people living in the area of emissions have started to rise again. In the area the Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre. The covered by the Uusimaa Regional Environment environmental loading caused by human activity Centre, there are approximately 2 600 sites where is considerable, and land use is undergoing rapid soil analyses are to be carried out and the need change. With the building of traffic routes and for rehabilitation assessed. These sites are close the fragmentation of community structures, the to habitation, groundwater areas or water bodies. area of green spaces and corridors is diminishing. Measures for the rehabilitation of contaminated The most important coherent areas of green space soil have been carried out at about a hundred sites are shown in the regional plans and local master annually. Volumes of hazardous chemicals trans- plans. ported both by land and by sea have increased. There has been a clear improvement in the quali- Reconciling the needs of human activity with ty of waters since the end of the 1990s, even though those of the natural environment, combating cli- most rivers, shallow lakes and the coastal waters mate change and reducing the load on the envi- of the Gulf of Finland still suffer from eutrophica- ronment are the most serious challenges facing tion. There is heavy loading of water bodies by us during the Environmental Programme period agriculture, as a large area of the region consists of 2007–2020. Our prime objective is to create a good agricultural land and the soil is sensitive to erosion. living environment for the residents of Uusimaa Even the more sparsely populated areas represent and to preserve the biodiversity of the region. 8 Our Shared Environment 2020 Our Shared Environment 2020 9 10 Our Shared Environment 2020 MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE UUSIMAA Environmental