Dodopresentation eng

A Finnish environmental NGO working in urban environments –

example of Dodo

Why an urban NGO?

• Majority of people live in cities; 50-50 situation was reached in 2008

• 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,…

• Cities are not ecological bubbles!

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!

This is OUR city- and us means

everyone

What do we do?

• Megapolis – urban festival• Urban planning• Urban farming• Development cooperation• Workshops, discussions, education,

school visits,…

MEGAPOLIS festival + the theme of the year

• Urban solutions to global environmental problems• annually, this year it’s 2026 and Energy, October 15• past themes: Heroic consumerism, Happy Cities, Food &

Cities, Rhythm of Cities• Intl & Finnish keynote speakers

Urban planning

• Effective, stimulating, socially and environmentally sustainable city:

- How to create a socially functional and aesthetic urban environment without forgetting environmental conditions and social aspects?

- How does the built infrastructure impact the essential forms of entrepreneurship, people’s social relations and their use of space?

- What is a good street, courtyard, square or park made of?

Urban farming

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

Urban farming projects

• Pasila farm• Temporary bagfield farming in Kalasatama Urban dream management

• Urban beekeeping• Bin farming, DIY!• Fruit trees to the yards of apartment houses• Helsinki, Tampere, Turku

• http://satokartta.net/

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

- vegetable plantations- beekeeping- rat-prevention from rice

fields- adult literacy training- association support

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

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

Thank you!dodo.org