| Description : 100 years ago, in 1923, the Finnish Imperial Nature
Conservation Act was passed, which is still in force and allows the protection of individual plant and animal species and
other natural objects, as well as the establishment of reserves on state or private land. Since 1983, the country has had
its own Ministry of the Environment and is working on a first social contract for sustainability: government
programmes and initiatives from business, civil society and authorities are to converge under one roof. Forests, lakes and
bogs are the main element of the Finnish landscape. Completely untouched forest nature can only be found in parts of
Lapland, where the number of Finland's larger predators such as bear, lynx, wolf and wolverine has increased in recent years.
However, large areas of northern Finnish moorland have been preserved in an undisturbed natural state; they have not yet
begun to be drained. But the first peatlands have already been turned into huge reservoirs in the service of the
electricity industry. The energy‐intensive production of pulp, paper and metal are central Finnish industries that
have been modernised considerably, but per capita energy consumption in Finland is still twice as high as the EU average.
Nature conservation is no longer just a scientific and idealistic task in Finland either, but a cultural and social
necessity. Coin designer Sandra Prami has chosen a longhorn beetle, a pre‐Arctic common beetle, as the motif.
The occasion of issue, nature conservation, is indicated at the top with "LUONNONSUOJELU" in Finnish and at the bottom with
"NATURSKYDD" in Swedish, followed by "2023", the year of issue. On the right is the country abbreviation "FI" (Finland) and
a lion (the heraldic animal of Finland) on the left as the mint mark of the Finnish mint Suomen Rahapaja OY in
Vantaa. |
