European Rewilding Network
ERN2206

Lake Kuivasjärvi

Basin-wide rewilding through land purchases and land concessions

Lake Kuivasjärvi is located in the headwaters of nationally relevant Kokemäenjoki catchment area.
Lake Kuivasjärvi catchment area contains the Alkkianeva peatland. This 30-hectare site has been flooded and restored back into a natural wetland.
From 2016 up to 2021 system-wide review, traditional knowledge inputs and planning resulted in catchment wide rewilding measures.
In 1970's first system-wide impacts from peat mining and nutrient flows were evident.
Summer of Year 2013 was the Summer of Death due to over 50 cms of algae floating on the lake surface as a result of organic and nutrient loading.
In 2000's warm summers lead to algae blooms and worsening water quality.

Lake Kuivasjärvi is located in the headwaters of nationally relevant Kokemäenjoki catchment area. The lake collects its waters from over 16000 hectares and is affected by forest ditching, erosion, peat mining and nutrient loading from farm lands.

Kuivasjärvi is known for its cultural heritage and natural values. The Indigenous Sámi people lived in the catchment area still in 1600s. Landscape Rewilding Programme supports the rewilding efforts of Pro Kuivasjärvi, a local association that implements catchment-wide restoration. The organisation began its work in 2016. Additionally local fisheries bodies and private land owners have made their water protection actions in the lake catchment. Kuivasjärvi has been featured in many international and national media and science publications.  Lake Kuivasjärvi catchment area contains the Alkkianeva peatland. This 30-hectare site has been flooded and restored back into a natural wetland. Louhineva peatland, 90 hectares in size was rewilded in 2021, and is a central location for willow ptarmigan restoration.

 

Specification Description Achievements Exchange
Project: Lake Kuivasjärvi
Region: Western Finland
Type of project: Creating space for wilder nature, Fostering the development of nature based economies, Increasing interest in the wild through communications, Magnification of rewilding impact and practices
Aim and vision:
Other activities: Community involved, Education, Recreational activities, Research
Results so far: Lake Kuivasjärvi efforts won the best regional water project prize in 2021. In 2022, Lake Kuivasjärvi has received a decision of a 47,000 € funding decision to expand the rewilding actions to the northern parts of the catchment. This builds on a large initiative 2019-2022 to restore the Western habitats of this large lake catchment located in Parkano.
Inspirational value: Rewilding and restoring large natural sites to serve as internationally relevant biodiversity hotspots and carbon sinks helps to both store carbon (in the peatlands and forests) and actively trap carbon dioxide in the future when fully restored. The ecosystem benefits will service local communities and interconnected catchments. Restoration leads to the natural succession-based return of species, water tables, ecosystem characteristics and carbon trapping.
Experience you would like to share: t should be noted, that such actions on a basin-wide scale that combine traditional knowledge with science with clear and coherent aims, has not happened often even on the international level. Success in Kuivasjärvi contains therefore stimulus and models for world-wide transformations from a century of troubles into a rewilded home stream of resilient villages, food security and well-being.
1. Traditional and Indigenous knowledge 2. Basin rewilding 3. Peatland restoration without carbon credits
Experience you would like to gain: Advancing community-based and -controlled efforts to fight impacts of climate change, enhance biodiversity and protect waterways.
Map
Country
Finland
Start year
2016
Size (ha)
16000
Area type
Freshwater lakes, Northern coniferous forest
Natural process
Flooding, River dynamics, Wetland dynamics
Flagship species
Bear, Beaver, Lynx, moose, Otter
Member of:
Rewilding Europe Capital
Lake Kuivasjärvi is located in the headwaters of nationally relevant Kokemäenjoki catchment area.
Lake Kuivasjärvi catchment area contains the Alkkianeva peatland. This 30-hectare site has been flooded and restored back into a natural wetland.
From 2016 up to 2021 system-wide review, traditional knowledge inputs and planning resulted in catchment wide rewilding measures.
In 1970's first system-wide impacts from peat mining and nutrient flows were evident.
Summer of Year 2013 was the Summer of Death due to over 50 cms of algae floating on the lake surface as a result of organic and nutrient loading.
In 2000's warm summers lead to algae blooms and worsening water quality.

Lake Kuivasjärvi is located in the headwaters of nationally relevant Kokemäenjoki catchment area. The lake collects its waters from over 16000 hectares and is affected by forest ditching, erosion, peat mining and nutrient loading from farm lands.

Kuivasjärvi is known for its cultural heritage and natural values. The Indigenous Sámi people lived in the catchment area still in 1600s. Landscape Rewilding Programme supports the rewilding efforts of Pro Kuivasjärvi, a local association that implements catchment-wide restoration. The organisation began its work in 2016. Additionally local fisheries bodies and private land owners have made their water protection actions in the lake catchment. Kuivasjärvi has been featured in many international and national media and science publications.  Lake Kuivasjärvi catchment area contains the Alkkianeva peatland. This 30-hectare site has been flooded and restored back into a natural wetland. Louhineva peatland, 90 hectares in size was rewilded in 2021, and is a central location for willow ptarmigan restoration.

 

Map
Country
Finland
Start year
2016
Size (ha)
16000
Area type
Freshwater lakes, Northern coniferous forest
Natural process
Flooding, River dynamics, Wetland dynamics
Flagship species
Bear, Beaver, Lynx, moose, Otter
Specification
Project: Lake Kuivasjärvi
Region: Western Finland
Description
Type of project: Creating space for wilder nature, Fostering the development of nature based economies, Increasing interest in the wild through communications, Magnification of rewilding impact and practices
Aim and vision:
Other activities: Community involved, Education, Recreational activities, Research
Achievements
Results so far: Lake Kuivasjärvi efforts won the best regional water project prize in 2021. In 2022, Lake Kuivasjärvi has received a decision of a 47,000 € funding decision to expand the rewilding actions to the northern parts of the catchment. This builds on a large initiative 2019-2022 to restore the Western habitats of this large lake catchment located in Parkano.
Exchange
Inspirational value: Rewilding and restoring large natural sites to serve as internationally relevant biodiversity hotspots and carbon sinks helps to both store carbon (in the peatlands and forests) and actively trap carbon dioxide in the future when fully restored. The ecosystem benefits will service local communities and interconnected catchments. Restoration leads to the natural succession-based return of species, water tables, ecosystem characteristics and carbon trapping.
Experience you would like to share: t should be noted, that such actions on a basin-wide scale that combine traditional knowledge with science with clear and coherent aims, has not happened often even on the international level. Success in Kuivasjärvi contains therefore stimulus and models for world-wide transformations from a century of troubles into a rewilded home stream of resilient villages, food security and well-being.<br /> 1. Traditional and Indigenous knowledge 2. Basin rewilding 3. Peatland restoration without carbon credits
Experience you would like to gain: Advancing community-based and -controlled efforts to fight impacts of climate change, enhance biodiversity and protect waterways.
Member of:
Rewilding Europe Capital
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