Adil Sadiku Naturskyddsföreningen Örebro län
Nordic countries have real potential in becoming forerunners in nature-based integration. Nature-based solutions may have the potential of offering an efficient and cost-effective way for the successful integration of the immigrants into the Nordic societies.
The new publication reports the results of the first phase of the project ORIGIN. The project aims at increasing the understanding of the role of nature, natural environments and outdoor recreation in the social integration of immigrants into the Nordic societies.
Need for cross-border cooperation
The report concludes that interest in nature-based integration is expanding rapidly and experiences on it have been positive. Across the Nordic countries a number of practical projects and initiatives have been launched to promote the benefits of nature in integration. However, the information and experiences gathered in the current initiatives and projects have remained very fragmented, not transferred across Nordic borders or even nationally. Need for more intensive cooperation is urgent.
The report ends with several recommendations including:
- better integrating the immigrant perspective into development of the practices
- finding common defitions and concepts to facilitate coopreation
- identification of best-practices and replicating and upscaling them accross borders
- setting up a Nordic platform for knowledge exchange
What next?
The focus in the next phase of the project is on meeting these challenges as well as deepening the Nordic cooperation. The project is led by Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and the project brings together researchers as well as public, private and third sector actors from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The project is funded by the terrestrial ecosystem group (TEG) of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Read more
More information
Senior Research Scientist Kati Pikänen, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) , kati.pitkanen@ymparisto.fi, tel. +358 295 251 101