100 Years of Finland's First Nature Conservation Act

A stylised beetle. Along the upper edge the commemoration inscription in Finnish — "LUONNONSUOJELU" (Nature Conservation) — and along the lower edge in Swedish — "NATURSKYDD" — together with the year "2023". The mint mark of the Finnish Mint appears to the left and the country abbreviation "FI" to the right of the design.

In 1923, Finland passed its own nature conservation act, one of the first countries in the world to do so — at a time when the state itself was not yet ten years old. Independence in 1917 had opened the way for an independent environmental policy, and Finnish society had long been shaped by a close bond with its natural surroundings: forests cover almost three-quarters of the country, and lakes and bogs structure the landscape. The 1923 act laid the first legal foundations for designating protected areas and preserving wild animal and plant species. It emerged during a Europe-wide active phase of the nature conservation movement, in which nature was increasingly understood as something worth protecting — not solely for economic reasons, but as part of national identity.

The act is regarded as the foundation of today's Finnish nature conservation law, which has been developed further over the decades and now ranks among the stricter frameworks in Europe. Finland maintains an extensive network of national parks and nature reserves; the concept of everyman's right, in Finnish "jokamiehen oikeudet," governs free access to nature and is deeply anchored in the country's social self-understanding. In 2023, the first nature conservation act marked its hundredth anniversary — an occasion for Finland to honour this early legal commitment to preserving its natural environment.