Saastamoinen Foundation provides funding for 15 hectares worth of seedlings to the Taimiteko – Seedling Action. In the Taimiteko – Seedling Action, the aim is to plant new carbon sinks and employ young people to plant the seedlings.
This year, 30,000 new seedlings will be planted with the support of Saastamoinen Foundation as a part of the 4H Association’s Taimiteko – Seedling Action project. In June 2021, new forest will be planted with the seedlings. The new forest will be grown in four different sites in Finland, and young Finns will be working as the planters. The 4H Association and the Saastamoinen Foundation have agreed on funding for three years. The amount of funding granted by the Saastamoinen Foundation is 75,000 euros each year, between 2021 and 2023.
This is the second year in a row that Saastamoinen Foundation is involved in the Taimiteko – Seedling Action. In 2020, with the support of the Saastamoinen Foundation, 10 hectares, i.e., 20,000 seedlings were planted. Five hectares of these seedlings were planted in Utajärvi and another five hectares were planted in Simo. Twenty local young people were employed by the planting activities.
“Learning by doing; that is the slogan of the 4H Association in the Taimiteko project as well. The focus of what we’re doing is on something that is very important to all of us – the environment – and through this project, young people get a direct chance to have an influence on matters that are truly important to them”, explains Petteri Karttunen, the chairman of the Saastamoinen Foundation.
The planting of the seedlings employs young Finnish people, primarily secondary school graduates. In addition to the appropriate wages paid to the young people, the funding is spent on land acquisition, seedling purchases, tillage, recruitment costs, training costs, and marketing, among other things. Planting seedlings will increase young people’s awareness of the role of forests in climate change. Through the Taimiteko – Seedling Action, young people get to carry out concrete climate actions and learn about forestry. The 4H Association and the Taimiteko Project are very often the first sources of employment for a young person.
“It is beyond wonderful that the Saastamoinen Foundation has given its support to the Taimiteko – Seedling Action for so many years to come. The foundation is one of our biggest supporters and it plays an essential role in the continuity of operations. The planting process of the seedlings was very successful last year, and we very much look forward to this summer’s planting operations. The Saastamoinen Foundation supports this important work for the benefit of both the climate and the employment of young people”, says Tomi Alakoski, the CEO of the Finnish 4H Federation.
Saastamoinen Foundation, founded by Liisa Karttunen and Osmo P. Karttunen over 50 years ago, has become known as a major supporter of projects and operators related to science, art, and Finnish society. The Saastamoinen Foundation distributes grants of approximately EUR 4 million annually.
The 4H Association is a national youth organisation. Its Taimiteko – Seedling Action project employs young Finnish people and introduces new carbon sinks into Finnish forests by planting spruce and pine seedlings in areas that are no longer active in forest and agriculture or peat production. The objective is to plant 10,000 hectares of new forest by 2030, which is the equivalent of about 20 million trees. Read more at: www.taimiteko.fi and www.4h.fi.
Photo: Tiina Rinne
