“Nature welcomes all”: how a personal idea became a shared project

Nature welcomes all” began as a personal attempt to help Ukrainian refugees feel more confident in Finnish nature. It has grown into a four-year project combining integration, citizen science and biodiversity research in five Finnish cities. Here is about how this idea began and our first results.

How the idea began

When I moved to Oulu in winter 2022, I was fascinated by northern nature: snow, forests and, of course, the northern lights. I also realised how unfamiliar this environment could feel. I wondered about large wild animals, ticks, adders and the risk of getting lost. With around twenty years of fieldwork experience, adapting was relatively easy for me. But I began thinking about other Ukrainians who had fled the war and arrived in Finland without such experience.

In early 2023, I tried to organise a meeting at the University of Oulu for Ukrainian refugees interested in Finnish nature. Only two people registered, and the event was cancelled. I then contacted the Association of Ukrainians in Northern Ostrobothnia. When they promoted a similar meeting, participants joined quickly. I learned an important lesson: trust and existing community networks matter. During 2024–2025, I organised similar activities in Tampere, Vaasa and Rovaniemi. The idea grew.

From a personal idea to a shared project

In 2025, it became a shared project. Olena Kozak and I had known each other in Ukraine, but we began working closely together on citizen science when she came to the University of Oulu as a Visiting Researcher supported by the Biodiverse Anthropocenes Research Programme. We developed the proposal that became “Nature welcomes all”. Our central question was simple: could nature engagement and citizen science support integration while allowing newcomers to contribute to their new society? We wanted to move beyond seeing refugees only as people who need help: through citizen science, they can also contribute to biodiversity knowledge and local communities. Kone Foundation funded our proposal, and the four-year project started on 1 April 2026.

Five Nature Clubs

After a month of organisational work, we established five Nature Clubs with our local partners: the Association of Ukrainians in Northern Ostrobothnia in Oulu, Aurora4UA in Jyväskylä, Ukraina Talo in Tampere, Tiainen ry in Vaasa, and the Association of Ukrainians in Lapland in Rovaniemi. We also created the Facebook group “Nature welcomes all” and separate WhatsApp chats to keep communication going between meetings. Each Nature Club now has approximately 10–15 regular participants.

Our activities include learning about common plants and animals, searching for rare orchids and signs of flying squirrels, fishing, mushroom and berry excursions, and discussions about ecosystems and outdoor safety. Olena and I initially guided most activities, but Finnish ecologists, mycologists and artists gradually joined us.

A key principle is that this is not one-way education. Participants suggest activities, share knowledge and contribute biodiversity observations through iNaturalist during excursions and in their free time. In the first months, participants contributed more than 17,300 observations representing around 1,640 species: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nature-clubs-nature-welcomes-all. Some were scientifically notable. For example, near Nokia, we documented the uncommon fungus Ascocoryne turficola, making this only the 60^thknown locality of the species in Finland according to the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF).

Urban wildlife observations

Together with our Nature Club members, we also document dead and injured wild animals in Oulu, Jyväskylä and Tampere. Participants photograph animals, record locations and, when possible, note the likely cause of death. By September, this initiative had produced more than 750 records, from invertebrates to mammals. This work has received partial support from the University of Oulu FRONT programme.

These observations may help reveal places where urban infrastructure creates risks for wildlife, while giving participants another way to contribute knowledge about their environment.

Only the beginning

But numbers and unusual records are only part of the story. Behind every observation is a person who stopped, looked closely, tried to identify an organism and shared that knowledge with others. For us, this two-way process is perhaps the most important result so far. Integration is often understood as newcomers learning how a new society works. We would like to explore another possibility: integration can also mean creating something together.

Can people become more connected to a new place not only by learning about it, but also by contributing to our shared knowledge of it?

We still have several years to look for the answer. But five Nature Clubs, more than 17,000 observations and a growing community exploring nature together seem like a promising beginning.