Back to Helsinki and it is first Monday of the course. Weekend was not as mellow as picture of Helsinki looks like.

A strong storm and rain clouds suddenly came Saturday evening and caused damage to households and felt trees down to ground. I spend some time helping locals near my neighborhood because that was a time when people with knowledge of forest were needed.

But back to the course. Professor Markku Kanninen started his presentation with introduction to the landscape management and ecosystem services. We learned basics of ecosystems and whole scale how to define a landscape.

After lunch break we got an interesting presentation from a guest lecturer of WWF ‘s Maija Kaukonen who has been working in Nepal and Indonesian projects. Forests are vital and important to many species and conservation programs are trying to deal above borders of different coutries. That is a complex situation because Nature works beyond borders. WWF is consulting governments, landowners and different stakeholders to put up participatory planning in progress and trying to manage landscapes for making environment better for biodiversity and people also.

The last one of days lecture was to introduce the group work assingment. Students will produce presentation and final report of one of main commotidies of today’s world. Soy, Palm oil, Cocoa and Beef/Cattle. Each group picked up one commodity and will write a final report of the one they got.

We will look forward to hear your presentation during last days of our course.

-Mikko Kaija