Life2Taiga is a nature conservation project funded by the European Commission’s LIFE-fund. The project is ongoing between 2022 and 2028, and includes 19 partners. In Sweden, 17 County Administrative Boards and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency are participating, together with Metsähallitus in Finland. The total budget is €23.5 million, of which 67% is financed by the EU.
The project objective is to restore the habitat type Western Taiga, which makes the boreal forest around the northern hemisphere. Especially, we want to improve the conservation status for the pine dominated fire-adapted forests. These forests have developed a rich biodiversity due to a frequent fire regime historically. Modern monocultural forestry practices have drastically reduced heterogeneity in the Western Taiga. Many rare and threatened plants, fungi, insects and birds have specialized on living in the environment created by the fire, such as more dead wood in several decaying stages, warm sunlit wood and exposed sandy soils where they can live and germinate. The regeneration of new pine and deciduous trees is facilitated, and the shadowing spruces are burned away by the fire. During the coming century, the pine forests will be more open, vibrant and rich in species.
However, no-one wants wildfires that are out of control and these are mostly put out by the fire brigade. Therefore, we conduct controlled, also called prescribed fires, where we can select places in the landscape where the fire will give the highest benefit to species and habitat restoration. We also choose locations where borders are easy to establish to prevent the fire from spreading and where there is a good supply of water. The fires are conducted by staff trained in fire management under circumstances of high security and careful planning.
Life2Taiga will conduct 215 prescribed fires on 3400 hectares in total. In some forests where it is difficult to conduct safe and efficient burning, fire-mimicking measures will be tested. The prescribed fires will take place in 165 Natura 2000 areas in Sweden and Finland, which are set aside as nature reserves.
In addition to the conservation activities, the project will have a large focus on communicating what we are doing to landowners, neighboring people, forest visitors, the general public and a wide range of stakeholders. We will collaborate with fire services, forest companies, restoration contractors, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and other authorities, reindeer herding communities and neighboring countries to share our methods and improve the knowledge on fire behavior in forests. There will be both thematic conferences, field excursions and demonstration burnings. In several of our burned areas, we will place hiking trails with information signs and visitor facilities and create exhibitions on forest fire in Naturums in Sweden and Haltia Visitor Center in Finland.
