Finland is a country of mires. At present 17 % of the total mire area in Finland has been changed to other landscape forms like agricultural land, artificial lakes, peat production areas and forests. Since 1950 about two thirds of the mire area has been drained using ditches, mainly in favour of forestry. The practice of drainage is concentrated in Southern Finland, where 80 % of the mire area has been drained. The change has had a major impact on mire birds, which have decreased by 40 % since 1979. The Finnish Red Lists show that 56 % of mire habitats are threatened, and the number of red list bird species has increased both in the mire and wetland habitats. There are still 8.9 million ha of mires left and 4 million hectares of them pristine, but the message is clear: there is an urgent need for large scale management of wetlands and restoration of mire habitats. This is essential not only for biodiversity, but also for people, because restoration of wetlands and mires is vital also to climate change mitigation. Yet, Finland still has not begun large scale actions to halt the decrease of mire habitats and wetland birds.

More examples of habitat loss:

• Grassland destruction across the EU
• Exploitation of high biodiversity forest
• Peatland loss in Ireland