The Finnish government will present a bill to Parliament that would enable the construction of a new hotel on the Pallastunturi Fell in the Province of Lapland.
A change in a law is required because the fell forms part of the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park.
In the government the two ministers from the Green League Party voted against the plans. In their view the planned 320-bed hotel was too large.
The new hotel would replace an old and antiquated one. Various sides have objected vehemently to the construction of the hotel in a national park area, and therefore the refining of the amendment in the ministry has taken a long time. In the original plans a 500-bed hotel was proposed.
The revised proposal also includes provisions for erecting a new nature centre and eliminating a caravan park.
The government has attached two announcements to its bill. In connection with working out the area’s layout, an assessment has to be carried out in accordance with the EU Natura 2000 programme of nature conservation, in order to ensure the sparing of the national park’s Natura area from “significantly impairing effects”.
In the second announcement, the government emphasises the unique standing of the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park as well as that of the Koli region in the southeast of the country.
Both areas already had a hotel before they were awarded the national park status. Apart from the Pallas hotel, “similar construction projects will not be permitted elsewhere in the mentioned national parks or anywhere in the country’s other national parks”.
This means, for example, that a new ski resort cannot be built in the northern part of the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park.
