The demonstrators called for an end to plans to clear a forest area in eastern Helsinki to make room for apartment buildings.
Environmental protesters blocked the busy Länsiväylä motorway in western Helsinki for about 15 minutes on Tuesday morning, before police ordered or in some cases carried the demonstrators out of the road.
Elokapina (the Finnish branch of the climate NGO Extinction Rebellion) announced that its members planned to block all traffic on Länsiväylä in the Ruoholahti district between 9 and 10 am on Tuesday.
Four police units were on the scene in Ruoholahti before 9 am, with officers telling protesters that the demonstration would need to move elsewhere, because the motorway was not a suitable location.
Police carried away some of the protesters who refused to leave. Vehicle traffic on the road returned to normal around 9:30 am.
Tuesday was not the first time Elokapina protesters have blocked road traffic, but it was the first time the group’s members demonstrated on a motorway.
The demonstrators called for an end to plans to build apartment buildings in a natural forest area in Stansvik, in the eastern Helsinki island district of Laajasalo. Residents in the area have campaigned to protect the forest for more than two decades.
Plans to construct residential housing in the area are currently being reviewed, but according to an Elokapina press release, the felling of trees and blasting work for the construction of a new street has already begun in the area.
A large portion of the Stansvik forest has been categorised as a biodiverse area. The Finnish state has purchased sections of similar forests and made them protected areas.
Plans for the construction of around 1,200 new apartments in the area were put on hold in 2021 in order to reassess the situation, due to the forest’s natural resources.
Source: yle