The aim of this thesis was to find out what environmental management in extraction areas stands for, how it has changed during the years and how biodiversity has been taken into account in the context of aggregate industry. This study also examines the history of the Land Extraction Act and changes in environmental management. In addition, this study also introduces Lahokko, i.e. the dead wood -zone and gives instructions on how to establish a Lahokko-site. The commissioner of this thesis was NCC Roads.

The Land Extraction Act became valid in 1982 in Finland. Before the Act the extraction of earth materials was unplanned and harmful for the valuable landscapes of eskers. When the Act became valid, extraction went under regulation. The Act has been changed several times since then. Extraction of earth materials has changed markedly: the extraction of gravel has been reduced and extraction of stone material has been increased. Environmental management procedures have been refined; the focus has changed from gravel sites to stone extraction areas. Promoting biodiversity is a relatively new phenomenon in the aggregate sector.

The impoverishment of biodiversity has become a serious threat to the nature. The decrease of open sunny habitats and the lack of dead wood in commercial forests are serious. Manmade environments and novel ecosystems may serve as important havens for species, which depend for example on open sunny habitats.

KIELO is the integrated biodiversity management system (IBMS) of NCC Roads. The Lahokko-area was planned during the permit application process and constructed during the extraction operations. Lahokko is an experimental project combining a hot slope and dead wood materials. This study was accomplished by comparing the conditions of hot slopes, dead wood and manmade environments and by applying this information to Lahokko. At its best, Lahokko may serve as a manmade environment for the organisms of warm habitats and saproxylic species.