MEET THE SCIENTIST
Tero Mustonen
Goldman Environmental Prize 2023 winner on rewilding Finland’s degraded habitats
TERO MUSTONEN IS A FINNISH SCHOLAR, fisherman and leader who is deeply connected to nature. He grew up amidst Finland’s lakes and peatlands and has dedicated his life to bringing together western scientists, village elders and Sámi indigenous knowledge holders in the region to preserve traditional culture and environments. He lives in an old growth forest and was a lead author for the International Panel on Climate Change. He’s been awarded a Goldman Environmental Prize to recognise his achievements as a grassroots environmental champion.
My experience as a wilderness guide at the age of 17 in Canada – working in tens of thousands of hectares of intact boreal forests, lakes and rivers – led to the establishment of the Finnish non-profit, Snowchange Cooperative (SC) in 2000. It is a communitybased organisation that I co-founded to document climate and environmental change in the north and works with local and indigenous communities of the northern regions. I am chair of SC and also co-lead its Landscape Rewilding Programme, which aims to restore rivers, lakes, forests, peatlands and wetlands on a large scale. Winning the Goldman Environmental Prize recognises the work of SC and all the people involved.
Since April 2018, we have restored 82 severely degraded former industrial peat mining and forestry sites throughout Finland — totalling about 52,000 hectares — and transformed them into productive, biodiverse wetlands and habitats. Sites are purchased and restored by collaborating with local Sámi Indigenous and Finnish rural communities.
Afterwards, sites are rigorously monitored to ensure they are recovering and healthy. We are fighting climate change at ground level and creating a community rewilding model.
The rewilding programme grew out of a fight against a peat mining company by the village of Selkie – we restored the 73-hectare Linnunsuo wetland (one of our flagship sites) and learnt how local communities can create these recovering landscapes. Our approach looks at where people (a village) and nature co-exist. Peatlands, including recovering ones, are extremely important habitats for wildlife. Linnunsuo had two species of bird in 2010 when we started, and now it’s home to 210 bird species and is a national top 10 site for birds.
Jo Price