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Tommy's Outdoors: Conservation and Science

🦆🇫🇮 SOTKA Wetlands

Published over 1 year ago • 1 min read

Tommy's Outdoors

Conservation and Science

Finnish SOTKA is a large-scale habitat restoration project and a part of a larger Helmi Habitats Programme aimed at restoring Finland’s biodiversity. It is run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of the Environment. SOTKA’s objective is large-scale habitat restoration through wetlands rehabilitation, restoration of mires and catchments, non-native (i.e. invasive) predator control and building a network of resting areas for waterfowl.

It is also a great example of cooperation between hunting and non-hunting organisations for the benefit of nature. This type of cooperation is something I’ve always been a strong advocate of. So it was my great pleasure to invite to the podcast: Veli-Matti Pekkarinen, the Waterfowl Habitat Specialist from the Finnish Hunters’ Association and Heikki Helle, the Wetland Specialist at BirdLife Finland.

Listen to our conversation to learn more about SOTKA and Helmi projects. We also discuss the details of cooperation and specific actions that are undertaken to meet project objectives. I also enquired about the social perception in Finland of actions like predator control. Overall it was interesting to compare mindsets and attitudes in Finland with those in Ireland or the UK. Also, big shoutouts to Padraig Breen from NARGC who was instrumental in making this podcast episode happen.

175: SOTKA Wetlands with Veli-Matti Pekkarinen and Heikki Helle

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Tommy's Outdoors: Conservation and Science

Tommy Serafinski

I am an outdoorsman, podcaster and speaker. I talk and write about the natural environment, biodiversity, conservation, hunting and fishing, rewilding and more. I am particularly interested in wildlife and human-wildlife interactions. I enjoy reading scientific papers on those subjects as much as being outdoors weathering the elements and getting first-hand experiences.

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