The state of the environment in Finland

Seeking to understand environmental changes

The state of the environment can be assessed by monitoring physical, chemical, biological and other factors, and by analysing their interrelationships. Such analysis can provide information about how rapidly the climate seems to be warming, where and how harmful emissions spread through the environment, and which species are thriving or declining, for instance.

It is difficult to evaluate the benefits and disadvantages of any environmental changes purely on the basis of scientific data, however. How much we worry about problems such as climate change, industrial pollution or the eutrophication of local lakes largely depends on our knowledge and our values.

This section of the website contains basic information on various aspects of the state of the environment in Finland, in order to help everyone to form their opinion about these issues. The statistics and analyses presented here are based on the results of research, monitoring and data analysis work carried out by Finland’s environmental administration.

This work has particularly examined environmental problems, pollutant loads, biodiversity and water resources. Other government authorities, research institutes and universities in Finland are also involved in many projects monitoring and assessing the state of the environment.

DPSIR: Driving forces, Pressures, State, Impacts and Responses

The pages of this part of the website are organised into the following five sections related to different aspects of environmental changes, stressing the importance of a chain of causes, links and effects, as well as our responses. 

• Driving forces include the natural and socio-economic factors and processes that lie behind environmental changes.
• Pressures include emissions and other environmental changes that occur as a consequence of our reshaping of the environment.
• State concerns the degree and extent of environmental changes.
• Impacts relate to the benefits and disadvantages of these changes for nature and man.
• Responses are actions taken to curb harmful environmental changes.

This structure is closely based on the DPSIR framework (Driving forces, Pressures, State, Impacts and Responses) used by the European Environment Agency (EEA).