Responsibility is at the core of our operations. We’re nurturing a fragile balance with care: our guests want to see a bear and get good photos, and we want to keep those bears wild and protected.
What Does Responsible Bear Watching Mean?
- Minimizing disturbance to wildlife: keeping human odors and sounds at bay by insulating buildings and instructing guests. We’re also cutting unnecessary time outside of the hides and avoiding unnecessary contacts with the bears.
- Keeping the bears wild: After 18 years of our operation, these bears are still wild. They don’t show any interest in our hides or nearby settlements: they keep their distance, and so do we. We don’t feed them closer than 20 meters to preserve their human shyness. It’s for the benefit of these majestic creatures.
- Providing only a little snack to get the bears visible: we never overfeed, and thus, don’t use animal carcasses. We also regularly inspect the bear feces and adjust our offerings if needed. All bears visiting us need to forage for their natural diet in the woods daily; our food is just a snack.
- Minimizing our footprint through sustainable operations, protecting more land for wildlife, reviving nearby swamps and rivers – and, overall, fighting erosion on our bear-watching site by switching locations and letting nature heal.
From Responsible Operations to Conservation Projects
We are proud to be an ethical bear watching company. We respect nature and wildlife, and responsibility guides all our operations. Solar panels generate the electricity needed to charge the cameras and mobile phone batteries. We recycle waste and, to attract bears, use local raw materials, such as byproducts from fish food processing, thereby supporting the local circular economy. We have calculated our company’s carbon footprint to further improve our operations.
Our environmental responsibility reaches beyond our own operations. We have donated 10,000 € to the restoration of the Kuusinki River and to strengthen its unique, wild trout population. The restoration and revival of the wild trout population is a long-term effort, and we’re committed to continuing the work in the coming years.
Preserving Biodiversity and Habitat for the Bears
We have protected the nearby taiga environment, which connects to Paanajärvi National Park in Russia, offering bears a safe migration channel and refuge, where hunting is prohibited. The 600-hectare protected area on the Finnish side of the Russian border allows bears to use their ancient cross-border migration routes and provides grounds for foraging and hibernation.
Protecting Old Forests with Your Support
Additionally, with the profits from bear watching, we have now protected 50 hectares of forest that acts as a carbon sink and storage. Approximately twenty (20) hectares of this nature reserve is old-growth forest. The area includes wetlands, swamps, and various structured forests that provide diverse habitat for taiga species such as the capercaillie, three-toed woodpecker, and wolverine.
Our visitors can enjoy nature while knowing they support sustainable, responsible wildlife tourism. Thank you for helping us preserve the beautiful natural beauty of Kuusamo for wildlife and future generations.