Anglo American has signed an agreement with the Inari Collective Forest to purchase 2,900 hectares of protected forest in Inari, as part of its commitment to compensate the harmful effects of Sakatti’s mining project to biodiversity and ecosystems. The transaction is the largest voluntary ecological compensation in Finland so far.
The forest area is located approximately 125 kilometres north of Sakatti. It’s owned by a collective of more than 1500 mainly local individuals and part of a global network of Intact Forest Landscape (IFL). IFL is defined as an unbroken natural landscape of a forest ecosystem and is estimated to account 23 percent of the world’s forest ecosystems.
Ecological compensation is used to mitigate the impacts of the mining project on biodiversity and ecosystem services, which means that land-use changes that cause adverse effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services are compensated by providing new values in another area – in Sakatti’s case in Inari. The compensation also covers indirect effects such as noise, dust and traffic. Anglo American is purchasing the land to make it part of protected areas in Finland, ensuring that it cannot be exploited for logging. This is by far the largest ecological compensation initiative in Finland.
”Anglo American has committed to advance sustainable mining on every project. Our Sustainable Mining Plan focuses on preventing, avoiding, and mitigating all the damage we’re causing to the environment. The voluntary ecological compensation transaction signed today is an important step towards fulfilling this promise. Through compensation, we strive for a net positive impact, both for the natural ecosystem and for society more broadly. The transaction will meet about half of our compensation needs, and the continuation will follow, among other things, to protect swamps”, says Pertti Lamberg, CEO of AA Sakatti Mining Oy.
“Inari Collective Forest is extremely happy with the contract. We have achieved goals that are important for our members, such as allowing people in the area to continue hunting in accordance with the tradition", says Yrjö Marttila, Chairman of the Inari Collective Forest.
The price of the land acquisition is EUR 10.4 million.
“Voluntary ecological compensation is a new method in Finland”, says Atte Moilanen, ecoinformatics researcher who is primarily in charge of the planning for the Sakatti’s ecological compensation.
"There has occurred mistrust of ecological compensation, partly due to the failures observed around the world. There are known cases where compensation is planned inadequately, or implementation has fallen short. The fact that Sakatti Mining Oy is already starting compensation operations during the licensing phase of the project demonstrates the company's commitment to reliable implementation. The carrying out is also in line with the ongoing reform of the Finnish Nature Conservation Act," Moilanen continues.