Project coordinator, Jaana Sorvali. I work as a research scientist at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) Helsinki office. My work with climate change started in mid 2000 at the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office, where I was fortunate to participate to the drafting of the first national long-term climate and energy foresight report. After that, it has been climate change in all shapes and forms. Soon climate change adaptation began to dominate over mitigation on my work agenda as I was involved in evaluating the Finnish adaptation strategy and drafting of the new adaptation plan.
Besides the strategic level, my interest has been in practical implementation of climate action. This evolved from two thoughts: 1) there is a gap between policy and practice and 2) in situations of crisis, food security is of utmost importance. From these notions, my path led to research. At Luke, my research is concentrated on agriculture and to the social acceptability of climate action and mitigation and adaptation practices among farmers. This path has now led me to where I actually begun – to the Arctic. My first real job over 15 years ago was at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Northern Dimension unit. I loved to follow the work of the Arctic Council, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council and the Council of the Baltic Sea States – and now I am very happy to continue this work through the ACAF project.
Contact Jaana: firstname.lastname@luke.fi, tel. +358 50 435 4910.
Team member, Ilona Mettiäinen. I work as researcher at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) in Rovaniemi. I have a strong background in research on the Arctic region and regional development there, sustainable tourism, and particularly on strategic responses to climate change, including subnational climate change strategies, climate services, and co-production of knowledge on climate interventions (solar and targeted geoengineering). I was one of the authors in the Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic (AACA) Barents report (AMAP 2017) and I collaborated for several years with the Barents Euro-Arctic Council’s WGE on regional climate change strategies. I started my researcher career in 2005 at the Finnish Forest Research Institute, which is nowadays a part of Luke, and the past decade I worked for the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland. In 2017-2020, I was the case study leader at the Arctic Centre in the H2020 project Blue-Action: Arctic Impact on Weather and Climate, where we co-designed a climate service for winter tourism industry in Northern Finland.
Contact Ilona: firstname.lastname@luke.fi, tel. +358 29 5322 442
Team member, Rainer Peltola. I work as a senior researcher in Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), focusing mainly to issues connected to natural products (NTFPs, Non-Timber Forest Products) and multiple use of forests. Nationwide berry harvest monitoring and harvest forecasts are the most visible part of my job.
My background is in microbiology, but I have been working with environmental monitoring and restoration prior to switching to the world of natural products. I have worked in several Barents interregional research and development projects connected to local plant resources and natural products, especially with Norwegian and Russian partners.
Contact Rainer: firstname.lastname@luke.fi, tel. +358 29 532 6429.
Team member, Seija Tuulentie. I work as a senior researcher in Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and hold an adjunct professorship in environmental sociology at the University of Lapland. My research fields include nature-based tourism, rural development and conflicting land use issues. I have concentrated especially in the Arctic and northern questions in Finland and Scandinavia.
I participated as one of the coordinating lead authors the AMAP-led process of AACA report (Adaptation Actions for Changing Arctic) for Barents region. From 2016 to 2019 I was leading a project on local knowledge in land use planning (BuSK-project, NPAP) with 11 partners from the Arctic and northern regions. My dissertation dealt with the discussions around the legal claims of the Finnish Sámi people from the national identity point of view (Meidän vähemmistömme, 2001). I have also worked as an acting professor in nature-based tourism for two years and in sociology for one year and also in other positions at the faculty of social sciences at the University of Lapland. Before my career in the academy I worked several years as a journalist in various media in Lapland and southern Finland.
Contact Seija: firstname.lastname@luke.fi, +358 29 532 4438.