A Finnish environmental NGO working in urban environments - example of Dodo (2013)

A Finnish environmental NGO working in urban environments –

example of Dodo

Titta LassilaAugust 19, 2013

Helsinki Summer SchoolEcology and management of urban green space

Why an urban NGO?• Majority of people live in cities; 50-50 situation was reached

in 2008– Finland 30 % in 1950 70 % in 2030

• Cities are getting bigger; in 1975 3 megacities of 10 million or more inhabitants, by 2025 there will be 27 (21 in the developing world)

• Urban people are increasingly detached from the natural environment and the sources of food, energy, raw materials,…or are they?

• Cities are not ecological bubbles!

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2009/aug/18/percentage-population-living-cities

“ City dwellers have smaller carbon footprints, study finds

Greater use of public transport and denser housing make urbanites more eco-friendly than their rural counterparts”

"Tokyo has considerably lower emissions per person than either Beijing or Shanghai and this shows clearly that prosperity does not lead inevitably to greater emissions," said report author David Dodman. "Well-designed and well-governed cities can combine high living standards with much lower greenhouse gas emissions.”

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/mar/23/city-dwellers-smaller-carbon-footprints?guni=Data:in%20body%20link

http://www.iied.org/ IIED

Urban green space?

http://mashable.com/2013/

Dodo – A Progressive Finnish environmental NGO

• Established 1995 • Promotes global environmental thinking

and citizen-based action • Wide perspective to environmental issues• Urban point of view: individuality &

communality• Open sharing of ideas and willingness to

test any possible solutions – with a permission to fail

• Avoiding expert talk; everyone’s entitled to understand and contribute to the discourse

• strongly voluntary-based

Dodo guidelines

• Environmental problems will be solved in cities that are vibrant and tolerant.

• Positive thinking leads further. Therefore we don’t condemn, instead we encourage.

• Dodo offers new opportunities for different kinds of people. One does not need to be an expert in order to be able to participate and be part of the solution.

• Anyone can make a difference in manyways: with a fork or a bicycle, in a blogor at a workshop.

• Even voluntary work can be done professionally and impressively!

What DO we DO?

• Megapolis – urban festival (until 2012)• Urban planning• Urban farming• Development cooperation• Workshops, discussions, environmental

education, excursions

Ideas rising into action

Lumituuli OyDemos Helsinki

Urban planning

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

This is OUR city- and us means

everyone

“Copenhagen has no cyclists. Copenhagen has ordinary citizens who ride bikes.”

Bianca Hermansen, urban designer

http://dodo.org/dodoilu/uutiset/copenhagen-has-no-cyclists-copenhagen-has-ordinary-citizens-who-ride-bikes

Urban farming

• A great success since 2009: you CAN grow your own food in a city!

Dodo’s urban farming 2009

One year later…

Creating ones own urban green space - Kalasatama 2010

Kalasatama, July 2010

Copenhagen 2013

http://satokartta.net/

2011: Urban farming centre Kääntöpöytä / Turntable

Roundhouse in Pasila

The Plan

http://vimeo.com/50821564

The Plan

2013: Urban Housing Fair

30 % of our carbon footprint comes from housing; mainly the square meters we occupy

Not the size but the function

Think outside your apartment

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/07/25/10-amazing-tiny-houses-in-japan-a-photo-tour/

From local to global – development cooperation in Africa

• Sinsibere in Mali: combating desertification & empowering women

- creating alternative sources of income to replace woodcutting, such as soap fabrication and gardening

- establishment of a women’s cooperative, supporting the improvement and marketing of local products

- cooperative center for education & production

- development of solar energy

Association supportVegetable plantingAdult literacy trainingBeekeeping

• Tany maitso in Madagascar: forest conservation & sustainable rural livelihoodssupporting alternative ways of income for people living around protected areas

Think urban!

“Zimbabwe’s climate change strategy should focus on urban communities, give a greater role to civil society participation, and learn lessons and gain experiences from other highly vulnerable nations”

Brown et al., IIED 2013

http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/17145IIED.pdf?IIED: International Institute for Environment and Development

Elsewhere…

http://www.laciudadverde.co/2/

http://bicisporlavida.org/es#!/catid=1

What makes Dodo a great place to act?

• Learning by doing• Global approach; sharing solutions and ideas• Positivity; environmental activism is fun!• Tolerance; nobody’s perfect

Unique approaches to North-South

cooperation& environmental

work

Is urban planning and (green) space management possible outside public offices?

Urban beehives: Turntable, August 17, 2013

https://www.facebook.com/events/419492851493066/

Thank you!dodo.org