Summary

The Villages sequestering and storing carbon project is especially topical at the moment as countries implement the Paris Agreement and the need for action to mitigate climate impacts is desperately increasing. During the project, over 30 villages around the Pirkanmaa region planned and implemented their own climate actions using their expertise together with old traditions so as to create new events and know-how.

All villages showing an interest in tackling climate change were chosen to participate, with great diversity amongst those involved: some of them are located near growing urban areas, others are situated in sparsely populated and remote areas. All village gatherings, events and local community-led operations are aimed at tackling climate change, but each village adds its own flavour to its actions and sets its own targets. The main climate actions that villages have implemented in this project are sequestering and storing carbon by using wood for construction, making biochar and planting trees. Also, carbon emissions have been reduced at community level in various ways. Villages have, for example, organised events around environmental themes and local food circles, set up community gardens, developed recycling, composting and waste management, organised carpools and so forth.

 

Results

There is a strong community engagement for combatting climate change through locally developed solutions to reduce carbon footprints and to sequester and store carbon. Awareness at the individual and community level has increased into how carbon flows within the system and which actions are possible to close cycles and reduce losses. All villages involved in the project have implemented their community-led design for experimental climate actions and are building these changes and system transitions into everyday life.