FINLAND

1. FINLAND

2. Tampere Turku Helsinki • Neighbour countries: Russia, Norway, Sweden, Estonia • 338,145 square kilometres big • 5,3 million people • Most of the people live in the southern part of Finland • Capital city: Helsinki • Other big cities: • Espoo (237 581) • Tampere (207 697) • Vantaa (192 226) • Turku (175 642)

3. Finland is a republic • Independent since 1917 • Before it was part of Russia and Sweden • President: Tarja Halonen, since 2000 • Joined EU in 1995 • Currency changed from Finnish mark to Euro in 2002 • Official languages: Finnish and Swedish • Most Finns are members of Evangelical Lutheran Church

4. Environment • Landscape is mostly flat • Highest place is 1324 metres, which is in the north on the border with Norway • Many lakes: 187,888 big lakes • 77% of the land is covered with forest • Many swamps • Climate: • In southern Finland there temperate climate, in northern subarctic climate • The climate is affected by the Baltic Sea and the Gulf stream, which makes Finland warmer than other areas on the same latitude • In the winter the temperature can get down to -35 °C in the south, and in the summer up to +25 °C.

5. Countryside and agriculture • 90 % of Finland is classified as countryside, and 42% of the population lives on these areas. • The number of farms has been decreasing on last years, there is about 70 000 farms now • Prime productions are milk- and crop production • Half on the farms produce crops

6. Countryside is divided to three different categories: countryside close to cities, core countryside and sparsely habitated countryside. • Countryside close to cities has the best possibilities to develop. Habitats have the possibility to work in the cities and the welfare is the best in the country. Many families move to these areas. • The situtation at the core- and sparserly habitated countryside is more complicated: youth moves away and the age of the population gets older. Services and workplaces disapperar. • Decrease and aging of the population is a big problem and a threat for the countryside, when a lot of young people move away.

7. Leader • LEADER started in Finland in 1995. • On Leader+ period 2007-2013 there are 55 LAG:s and 396 communes involved in Leader. • The selection of LAG:s is done by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry • The overall budget for Leader+ in Finland is 170,4 million euro • Many projects are concerned with the problem about young people moving away from the countryside and the countryside not being attractive for new people to move in to.

8. Media Wagon • The wagon offered training, guiding and equipment for people in small villages to create their own media. • It included a director, basic information technology equipment and equipment for producing digital media. • It was possible to create websites, TV-films, virtual photo exhibitions, documents and animations. • The wagon had 25 "Media stops” at schools, village houses etc. • 36 films were made during the project • All films were shown on a local TV channel and many also participated film festivals • Mostly children were using the wagon, but also people of different ages

9. Project: Give me 5 • To give young people a change to realize their ideas and dreams • Because young people have a good idea of how to practically improve the life on the area • A competition was organized, where young people could present their ideas and best ones were realized • A website was made, and a person from the LAG toured around schools telling youth about the possibility • Many different projects were realized: happenings concerning sports and computers, repairing sports facilities etc.

10. Project: Grandma’s cottage • Goals: to make it easy to move to rural areas, improving the image of the area, attracting new residents • How? Building modern “grandma’s cottages”, which would be a tempting and easy way of living in rural areas • building of houses started in 2006, after first finding out that there is interest in this kind of living • Houses are suitable for small families or people living alone. They are affordable, and have easy access to services • Local builders etc. were used for building the houses • The project proved to be very successful

11. Music festival: Sulatto ‘04 • Organized by young people to young people • Lasted for two 2 days: first day was for youth, second day for children aged 2-10 and their families • Free of charge, alcohol free • Bands popular within youth and some less known local bands • For children: music, theatre, magic shows, games

12. Orienteering – sport and innovation • A Finnish and an Italian LAG started co-operation related with orienteering • Goals of the project were to • - develop international skills of local actors • - developing ecotourism combined with orienteering, • - develop orienteering as a hobby (especially for children and young people). • Many things were accomplished: • - several orienteering school camps and youth camps both in Finland and in Italy • - visits between people from Finland and Italy • - trainings • - tourist events • - a lot of material concerning orienteering such as education packages, maps and marketing material

13. KINOKISA - CINEMA CONTEST AND FESTIVAL • College of North Karelia and a LAG organized together a cinema contest and festival for filmmaking students • To give students a possibility to show their work and to meet students from other schools, and making to college and it's students familiar to the small city of Outokumpu where to college was situated • the event was held 4 times during the project, from year 2002-2005 • The festival was 1-4 days long and consisted of a short film competition, open lectures by professionals, workshops and concerts • The festival got a lot of publicity both locally and nation wide