The city of Oulu launched the Lähekkö nää luontoon Nature Activities in 2024. Its goal is to make local nature a part of the residents’ everyday lives. The Activities aim to inspire citizens of Oulu to spend more time in local nature and enjoy its health benefits.
Local nature is an important resource that can significantly improve the citizens’ quality of life. Our goal is to make local nature easily accessible and familiar to all citizens of Oulu. Places where citizens can relax and enjoy nature’s biodiversity.
During the period 2025–2026 we will focus on:
Organizing nature trips in cooperation with our nature wellbeing network
Promoting the consideration of nature’s health and wellbeing benefits in the city’s operations through surveys, workshops, and multisectoral cooperation
According to research, spending time in nature has positive benefits mentally, physically, and socially. Nature trips can offer short-term help by, for example, relieving stress, improving mood, and increasing physical activity; regularly spending time in nature can also, for example, reinforce immunity and prevent several national diseases (See Tyrväinen et al.: Luontoympäristön terveysvaikutukset ja niiden taloudellinen merkitys). We encourage everyone to spend more time in nature!
Nature trips promote communal nature experiences, help you find new friends, and enable the participation of nature wellbeing network operators. We organize local nature trips in different seasons, and we also participate in nature events organized by other operators. As part of the Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture programme, we organize a series of nature trips in cooperation with Annina Rokka with the theme: Luonto kertoo – community trips alongside stories.
As part of the Lähekkö nää luontoon Nature Activities, we have gathered a group of operators that wish to promote nature wellbeing. Our network includes associations, businesses, and other parties. We gathered together in November of 2024 and February 2025. Our discussions have been fruitful; new ideas and concrete cooperation practices. We invite all members of the network to ideate future trips on our shared Teams platform. You will find the membership form at the bottom of this page.
We are also investigating the possibility of creating more extensive nature companion activities in Oulu, offering an opportunity to learn about and enjoy nature together with others. For now, nature companion activities are a part of the nature trips.
On top of familiarizing citizens with nature attractions, Lähekkö nää luontoon Nature Activities also focus on promoting nature’s health and wellbeing benefits in communication and advancing the theme in city structures. In practice, this happens through surveys and analysis, as well as in multisectoral cooperation in our nature wellbeing network and within the city organization.
We have organized network meetings and workshops on the theme, where we have come up with ideas for promoting the citizens’ excitement and opportunities to enjoy local nature and its health benefits. We advance these ideas and important themes in our work.
The workshops explored, for example, improving the accessibility of local nature, visiting local nature physically, public transport into nature attractions, promoting the nature relationship of young people, increasing urban greenery, and developing nature companion activities. Examples of solutions include, among others, inspiring social media videos of nature attractions, community restoration and invasive species removal, trials, forest passes and forest buses, and low-threshold courses to ease spending time in nature.
In the fall of 2024, we organized a survey to map out the citizens’ experiences and thoughts on local nature. The survey investigated where and why citizens of Oulu move in nature and what factors prevent it. The results help us to develop the accessibility and diverse utilization of local nature. The preliminary results show that citizens are worried about local nature’s preservation and consider local nature as important for their wellbeing.
In March–April 2025, workshops for city employees were organized where solutions were creation for the challenges found in the citizen survey. The workshops are a part of a thesis project that focuses on Oulu’s local nature’s accessibility for citizens and city employees.
We have increased nature experiences in the everyday lives of employees by participating in the Nature Workweek in May: we encourage employees to bring the nature inside through nature videos and recordings, and to take work outside by, for example, holding meetings outdoors. Tips for working in nature are listed below in Finnish.
Are you working in the field of nature wellbeing? Join the Lähekkö nää luontoon Nature Network and stay up-to-date with the network’s events and operations and meet the other members.
Activate your nature fitness and develop your nature literacy skills by completing the tasks in the Nature Challenge. Through enjoyable tasks, you can improve your ability to read nature and learn more about the environment and a sustainable future.
The idea of the challenge is to enhance wellbeing through nature and strengthen nature literacy. You can complete the tasks in any order you like. Each time you finish a task, tick the box.
The challenge is part of the city of Oulu’s Reading Capital campaign, its goal is to increase the health benefits of nature and develop nature literacy.
Read more and print out the materials on the Nature Challenge webpage.
