International co-operation

The VELHO project is enhancing the use and recycling of reed and other haybiomasses, as well as the exchange of knowledge between projects and European countries - especially about using reed as bioenergy.

Another objective of the project is to provide background and prepare for an agri-environment subsidy relating to the harvesting and utilisation of reeds in the coming programme period. For this purpose various pilot projects on winter and summer reed harvesting will be carried out - in order to study e.g. the cost-effectiveness of harvesting, as well as trials on the further utilisation of reed . The introduction of grants for reed harvesting would be a significant step towards promoting enterprise in this field and developing harvesting equipment for use in water protection and ecosystem management in coastal areas of Finland.

	This machine is often used in southwestern Finland for restoring previously grazed coastal meeadows. For this pilot experiment area the reed beds were cut in september 2011, and the grazing will begin again in the summer of next year.  Photo: Ritva Kemppainen

Practical co-operation is done with other Finnish projects and Finnish partners of European projects on pilot experiments dealing with use of reed as bioenergy. Though the material obtained from winter and summer cutting of reed beds have been and shall be used in different purposes and tests varying from building and soil enrichment to bioenergy. As there is yet quite few adequate machinery for harvesting reed (especially for winter harvesting) in Finland, knowledge about suitable machinery is collected from other European countries.

Also a new, integrative planning method of coastal areas is being developed in the project. The method combines the objectives of natural resources utilisation, conservation of biodiversity, protection of waters, recreational use and landscape management. The main focus is on creating an optimal network of reed beds and coastal meadows for the purposes of utilisation and conservation. Therefore, the planning methods of coastal areas can also be the subject of transferring know-how.

Coastal planning information brochure.pdf