National Risk Management Strategy for Contaminated Land
About this good practice
The National Risk Management Strategy for Contaminated Land was published by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment in 2015. It was created to response to changes in the operating environment of remediation sector. The strategy aims at managing the environmental and health risks of contaminated soils in a sustainable manner by year 2040. The strategy sets various objectives, and several actions and tasks are named to reach the objectives.
Especially two funding programmes presented in the strategy are relevant for diffusion of new in-situ remediation technologies. The first, the National investigation and remediation programme 2017 - 2040, allocates funding for investigating and cleaning risky, often orphan sites. Another programme is the Government's experimental programme for remediating contaminated soils 2016 - 2018, which aims to speed up development and introduction of sustainable risk management methods and increasing competitiveness of Finnish remediation business.
The Ministry of the Environment coordinates the implementation of the strategy. The majority of the strategy’s tasks are targeted to public authorities. Actors like consultants, contractors, engineers and research organisations can get direct economical benefits from the strategy’s two funding programmes.
Expert opinion
Healthy soils are essential for achieving climate neutrality, a clean and circular economy and stopping desertification and land degradation. They are also essential to reverse biodiversity loss, provide healthy food and safeguard human health. Over 60% of European soils are unhealthy and scientific evidence shows that soils are further degrading due to unsustainable management of the land, sealing, contamination and overexploitation, combined with the impact from climate change and extreme weather events. Degraded soils reduce the provision of ecosystem services such as food, feed, fibre, timbre, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, pest control or water regulation. The loss of these essential soil ecosystem services costs the EU at least 50 billion euro per year. This good practice is in line with the EU soil strategy for 2030, which provides the framework and concrete steps towards protecting and restoring soils, and ensuring that they are used sustainably. It is also in line with the Zero Pollution Action Plan, which aims to improve soil quality by reducing nutrient losses and chemical pesticides’ use by 50%. This good practice could be of use to countries or regions wishing to develop a comprehensive planning and funding mechanism for soil remediation.
Resources needed
Evidence of success
Potential for learning or transfer
When implementing this kind of solution, it is crucial to involve all different actors that work in remediation sector for example by letting them participate in strategy planning. In order to achieve the objectives, it is essential that different actors co-operate effectively during implementation phase. In Finland the number of actors working in the remediation sector is relatively low, and many actors know each other personally. This, for its part, facilitates achieving the strategy objectives.
Further information
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Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Ministry of the Environment