Events

In this section we presents some of the former events organized by REC.

BIOMONITOR workshop

Date: 25 November 2022

BIOMONITOR is a project funded by the Ministry of the Environment’s and it aims to develop Finnish species and biotopes long-term data and monitoring methods from a nature conservation perspective. During the workshop organized 25th of November 2022 around 30 key actors within Finnish nature monitoring gathered together to discuss different topics. The participants represented e.g. the Finnish Environmental Institute, the Natural Resources Institute Finland, Finnish Museum of Natural History, Aalto University and University of Helsinki. There was discussions about Operation Blueberry, bird line counting and pollinator monitoring as well as greetings from the BIOMONITOR project itself. Also a talk from New Zealand was heard when Andrew Gormley illustrated with examples how they keep track of the state of the environment in New Zealand.

Program

9:00 – 9:45 Introduction to the workshop

Jarno Vanhatalo: The BIOMONITOR project and its objectives
Anna-Liisa Laine: Monitoring Biodiversity indices
Joona Lehtomäki: The social need for biodiversity monitoring: what are Finland's/EU's goals and needs for biodiversity monitoring?

9:45 – 10:15 Coffee & discussion

10:15 – 11:30 Experiences of developing monitoring programs

Andrew Gormley: How is the New Zealand monitoring programme structured?
Aleksi Lehikoinen: How was the Finnish bird line counting network planned?
Mikko Kuussaari: How was Finnish pollinator monitoring planned and implemented?
Tiina Tonteri: How was Operation Blueberry planned and implemented?
Katja Holmala: The future of game monitoring - visions and challenges

11:30 – 12:30 Lunch
12:30 – 13:15 Greetings from the BIOMONITOR project

Elina Numminen: Analysis of the line counting network of Finnish birds
Emy Guilbault: Drivers of Finnish moth communities and implications for monitoring

13:15 – 14:45 Coffee & discussion
14:45 – 15:00 Closing remarks

Jarno Vanhatalo

Monitoring of Finnish Nature event

Date: 18–19 November 2021

REC, in cooperation with the Finnish Ecosystem Observatory (FEO), organized a two-day event (in Finnish).

During the workshop, researchers from the REC research team presented the broader perspective that emerged from monitoring different species groups. What can we learn from combining different observations?

On Friday the 19th, a panel session with the Finnish Environment Minister Emma Kari took place at the Science Corner (Helsinki). The topic was "Monitoring Finland's nature - how to monitor, compile and take into account living capital?".

Forum for Environmental Information event

Date: 4 December 2020

REC and the Forum for Environmental Information organised an event open to everyone (in Finnish) in December 2020, presenting recent research about drastic changes in Finnish nature. The significance of the research results and the use of the information were discussed together with the Minister of the Environment Krista Mikkonen, decision-makers and practitioners.

For the love of nature

Date: 14 February 2019

Panel discussion.

Information about the past is stored in long-term data collected from nature, and the Big Data era constantly provides us with new information on current changes. Recent methodological developments including remote sensing and social media can complement time-series data to help truly understand how and why biodiversity is changing.

The event included a panel discussion with scientists, industry and policymakers to tackle key questions such as: What is ecology, where can we see it and why should we care? What ecological information is needed to support decision-making and sustainable bioeconomy? Can computer simulations replace long-term data as funding levels are declining? We invited the audience to pose critical questions as well!