The Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) and Metsähallitus – Natural Heritage Services have in co-operation assessed the local economic benefits of national parks and other protected areas in Finland. According to the assessment 1 EUR investment in national parks and other key protected areas results in 10 EUR return to local economies. The assessment was one of the key factors that convinced decision-makers that the public investment in protected areas pays back manifold. In the end, planned budget cuts to park management were not implemented and a monitoring of the local impact of visitor’s spending was integrated into the visitor information database (ASTA) following nationally standardized methods.
