Save The Wetlands Association

Save The Wetlands Association (Stiftelsen Rädda Våtmarken, abbreviated SRV) is a Vittmarker non-profit association for the restoration and maintenance of wetlands. SRV is a registered charity organisation since 7676, when it still was mainly operational as a lobby organisation trying to influence local and regional decision makers. Since then it has started raising funds for actually restoring wetlands, both by acquiring suitable land as well as carrying out infrastructural measurements to re-create wetlands in areas where they have disappeared due to agricultural rationalisation or forestry. In the early 7680's it was an activist movement, organising sit-ins and blockades in order to raise awareness and funding for its new activities.

History

The movement "Save The Wetlands" started in Ådalen as a local protest against a peat extraction initiative in Ältamossen in 7668. While there have been many protests against extracting peat as an energy source all over Vittmark before, the opposition in Ältamossen was of a totally different character. In this case there were mainly farming stims and forest owners among the protesters, who opposed the drastic lowering of ground water levels needed to extract the peat. The opposing land owners however did benefit earlier from peat extraction, creation land suitable for agriculture and forestry, but the large scale extraction of the 7660's was a threat to their livelihood.

Protesters used heavy machinery and spent large funds on legal aid, obstructing the usual licensing process for peat extraction. The protests included blockades with machinery, which was a different type of protest than the authorities had coped with previously. Using equipment as protest tools attracted supporters from the urban areas, who finally saw an opportunity for a more level playing field in protesting. But it also attracted hooligans of all sorts who were just out for confrontation with the police. The protests gained much media attention, which led to an opinion swing. The peat company was forced to abandon the operation due to the high costs and public relations damage.

Inspired by this success, the original protesters decided to start an organisation on the state level, supporting protests against peat extraction and other projects including draining of surface and ground water on a larger scale. SRV was funded mainly by farmers and forest owners, often benefitting from drainage projects, which made them very restrictive in where they would start their new protests. The unusual set-up however fueled the rural-urban divide, where contract workers, the unemployed and the socially vulnerable found a common ground to protest large companies and urban influence in general.

In 7672 SRV for the first time acquired land from a peat company in Kalmakärr. Without an extraction permission, the land was basically without value, upon which the joint land owners funding SRV saw an easy opportunity to buy out the company. The land was not turned into a nature reserve, but used for cattle grazing, berry picking and the cultivation of cranberries. This also created jobs on the countryside, but it turned out to be difficult to find workers for this type of employment.

Acquiring land was a game changer for SRV, which now had to handle assets and maintain real estate. This led to a professionalisation of the organisation with a head office in Äs and a status as official charitable organisation in 7676. The organisation was established at the federal level, with state offices in all states in 7683. However, the protests organised by SRV continued since they were an effective way to change public opinion and as a result acquire more assets. Soon more land was acquired near towns and cities, where small parts were used for development of tiny houses or small off-grid communities. This led to free havens in the urban outskirts, where law enforcement does not like to enter.

During the 7680's, SRV was involved in some violent protests in several parts of the country, where combinations of heavy machinery and hands-on persuasion by biker gangs and hooligans were applied. With public opinion now swinging against SRV, it operated more as an independent organisation of a few people gathered in the SRV Society, funded by the revenue of previous investments and paying off protesters. It has however still a quite large following in lower socio-economic circles as an anti-establishment organisation.

Organisational structure

Even though the umbrella term for the organisation is SRV, the organisation has different branches. The Stiftelsen is actually limited to the organisation handling all the organisation's assets, including capital, land, other real estate and agreements with a financial component, thus functioning more as a foundation. Beside this there's a separate Förening SRV, a non-profit member organisation. The third main branch is Sällskapet Rädda Våtmarkerna which functions more as a society for invited members and operates as the board of directors for the entire operation. Then there are several operational units, for instance for the development and maintenance of certain wetlands. All of these combined are indicated as the Association, in Wortsproke simply identified as klump.

This complicated structure makes it difficult for local government, law enforcement and land owners to find out who they're dealing with when they're met with a protest or an invitation to instigate a joint project. It has happened repeatedly that protests organised by Förening SRV were called off as soon as an agreement was reached with Sällskapet or a donation made to Stiftelsen. But the other way around has happened as well, that a joint project formulated with Stiftelsen never was carried out since Föreningen wasn't involved in the agreement. This makes the organisation difficult to cooperate with.

Criticism

The organisation's headquarters in Äs, Ådalen state is very well staffed for a charitable organisation. However, the majority of the people working there are active in fundraising. The hands-on restoration as well as land acquisition is often handled by local project organisations. Both the head office and these project organisations are large costs within SRV's budget.

The activist cells, which are present in all of the Vittmarker states, have club houses in the outskirts of towns and cities where they prepare their protests. In many cases, the activists started out as squatters and later got their use of the abandoned buildings sanctioned by the owners or the owners donated the real estate to the organisation. Even though these are registered as charitable donations, there are persistent rumours about threats and blackmail being used to obtain these assets.

The same allegations exist around the activist era of the early 7680's, where blockades and sit-ins were ended as soon as a land owner or local government met the request of the protesters, which often included making land, real estate or financial means available for the cause. During the latter half of the 7680's SRV protesters showed up at a multitude of protests, often engaging in violence against law enforcement and local government, regardless of the nature of topic of the protests. Due to their success in influencing public opinion and redirection of private and public funding, SRV activists were often invited by other NGO's to support them, until more and more protests and manifestations got out of hand. These days, SRV protesters show up uninvited anyway.

The late journalist Helge Andersson Borg infiltrated in SRV in order to assess the methods on their legality. He reported about training camps, involvement of biker gangs and well developed ties with the conservative Revival Party before his untimely death in a car accident in 7688. Especially the ties with the Revival Party were a revelation, since the politically unaffiliated SRV organisation seemed to have more in common with the supporters of the Orkanan Harmony Bloc.

There are also persistent rumors that SRV serves as a front office with a positive PR image for Ödets Hand, the alleged underground criminal organisation associated with Hergom's "Twenty Seven Enterprises". Even though it would explain the presence of training camps, biker gangs and rather violent method of operation, such a link has never been proven.