Finnish

The Finnish fishing industry has earned an environmental sustainability certification for Baltic herring and sprat from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). It determined that about 95 percent of fish caught in Finnish territorial waters meets sustainability criteria.The London-based NGO gave Finnish professional fishers high marks on all of its three criteria for environmentally-sound practices using trawling and fyke nets. These include the health of fish stocks, the environmental impacts of fishing and industry management and tracking processes.The process took the Finnish Fishermen's Association (SAKL) two years. Only members of the trade group will be able to use the MSC’s blue fish label on packaging for the next five years. That will cover some 70 percent of the total catch. The MSC describes itself as the only wild-capture fisheries certification and ecolabelling program that meets best practice requirements set by both the UN and ISEAL, the global sustainability … [Read more...] about Finnish fish gain MSC sustainability certificate

Vimpeli is a small, sleepy village of less than 3,000 people in the Southern Ostrobothnia region of western Finland, yet the local pesäpallo team have been Finnish national ‘superpesis’ champions for two years in succession - and they have their sights firmly fixed on making it three-in-a-row this summer. The club reckons average attendance at its games is around 2,000 -- a clear indication of the central role the sport plays in this provincial town. “This village breathes pesäpallo”, explained Sami-Petteri Kivimäki, the 34 year-old head coach of Vimpelin Veto, when he spoke to Yle News just before second-placed ‘ViVe’ played third-placed Joensuu at Vimpeli’s Saarikenttä (Island Field) stadium. Kivimäki said he believes the huge support of the local community has been a key factor in ViVe’s success, and with a stadium capacity at Saarikenttä that almost exactly matches the local population, … [Read more...] about Pesäpallo: The game at the heart of Finnish summer

Finnish football shows its support for Pride week this weekend, with each team's captain wearing a rainbow flag armband in a round of matches designated as anti-homophobia games in co-operation with the Finnish LGBT organisation Seta."Football is for everyone, but discrimination shouldn't be part of football," said Veikkausliiga communications director Pyry Waltari. "We want to remind and challenge other leagues and sports to be brave and show their colours."Veikkausliiga has been at the forefront of efforts to fight homophobia in sports, signing the ‘promise for equality in sport’ in 2014 and in the following years joining panel discussions about homophobia in sport.The league says its “pride round” of matches complements its long-running Respect and Red Card to Racism campaigns."Everyone should feel able to be themselves on the pitch and in the stands," said Ilari Äijälä, who sits on the board of the Finnish players' union. "This year it's also … [Read more...] about Finnish football league joins Pride week