WE ARE
MAKING THINGS HAPPEN!
Working towards resilient & regenerative rural landscapes
Focusing on Åland Islands
Creating a thriving bioeconomy-based future
TOWARDS RESILIENT & REGENERATIVE RURAL LANDSCAPES
We are working towards fossil free, nutrient neutral, biodiversity enhancing and water smart rural landscapes. In our view, these are the key components to focus on within any landscape to increase its resilience and regeneration.
FOSSIL FREE
Being fossil free means reducing the dependence on fossil fuels in rural landscapes to reduce GHG emissions and increase self-sufficiency.
What can this mean in practice?
- Identifying where fossil fuel is embedded – for instance electricity, heating, fuel, fertilisers – and finding ways to replace with local renewable sources, aiming for self-sufficiency and even surplus.
- Promoting local biogas solutions. It’s a way of using and producing renewable energy so that it plugs into the local landscape offering benefits besides energy, for instance recycled nutrients.
- Promoting innovations that help sequester CO2 into the soil, for instance biochar.
- Promoting farming practices that reduce the climate impact of farming, for instance no tilling and rotational grazing.
NUTRIENT NEUTRAL
Being nutrient neutral means closing the loop on key nutrients in the rural landscape to reduce eutrophication and foster healthy soils.
What can this mean in practice?
- Promoting farming practices that improve soil microbiome and soil structure to make the soil more capable of retaining nutrients and water, for instance no tilling, winter cover crops, direct sowing and rotational grazing.
- Promoting the use and production of recycled nutrients, such as biogas digestate and biochar.
- Fostering increased connections between plant and animal farming to get more manure back to the fields and animals on grasslands directly benefitting soil health.
- Promoting innovations to capture nutrients to be returned back to the soil, for instance biochar and biofiltering.
- Promoting farming practices that prevent and reduce nutrient runoffs from agricultural land, for instance buffer zones, wetlands and smart ditches.
BIODIVERSITY ENHANCING
Enhancing biodiversity means fostering a diverse and varied rural landscape that benefits a multitude of wildlife and creates cultural and recreational value.
What can this mean in practice?
- Promoting farming practices that increases the variety in plant and animal species farmed, for instance agro-forestry, crop rotation, pasturing and rotational grazing and farming indigenous species.
- Promoting farming practices that directly increase biodiversity, for instance natural pastures and wetlands.
- Finding ways to reduce the use of pesticides.
- Finding ways to re-balance ecosystems that have been taken over by one species, for instance reed in coastal areas.
WATER SMART
Being water smart means increasing the capacity to become more resilient towards floods, droughts and other disturbances in water availability. This helps mitigate the impacts of climate change and reduces eutrophication-causing runoffs to waterways.
What can this mean in practice?
- Promoting farming practices that improve water retention in soil, for instance biochar.
- Fostering collaborations for better water management and value creation, for instance recycling process water from industry to farming.
ÅLAND LEADS THE WAY
We at Invenire have chosen to focus much of our work on the Åland Islands for several years already. We think Åland is an exciting place to drive forward our passion for resilient and regenerative rural landscapes.
What's special about Åland?
Åland is a small island society that holds huge potential in leading the way towards a more resilient and regenerative future. Åland is an autonomous region of Finland. Åland’s autonomy gives it the right to pass laws in areas relating to its internal affairs and to exercise its own budgetary power. While small in size – the population of Åland is currently just over 30.000 – Åland is a full society in and of itself. Self-government combined with the small size makes Åland agile, and ideal for piloting new ideas.
Most of Åland is rural landscape. Åland consists of several thousands of islands, but only about 60 are inhabited. 70 % of Åland’s land area is forest, while 13 % is agricultural area. Most of Åland people live in the countryside. Åland is home to a diverse food sector, with a lot of fruit, vegetable, potato and grain production, as well as dairy, meat and fish. About half of all Åland businesses are agricultural enterprises. This all means that many Åland people have a personal connection to the rural landscape, and it’s also a key component in many Åland livelihoods.
Already happening on Åland
In addition to working directly with businesses, Invenire has run or coordinated several interesting public projects on Åland over the past decade. Here’s a recap of the most recent ones.
Smarta vatten – Smart water (2022–25)
The project aims to promote agricultural water management and biodiversity through collaboration, innovation and local implementation. The purpose of the project is to improve the awareness, the will and the practical conditions for farmers on Åland to make appropriate local efforts for water conservation and biodiversity. The project is financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development through the Åland Government, run by Ålands Vatten Ab and coordinated by Invenire.
Tillsammans för ett modernt träbyggande – Together for modern wood construction (2021–22)
The project was an acceleration program for climate-smart wood construction within the public sector. The aim of the project was to promote wood construction within the Åland region and its 16 municipalities through increased collaboration between different types of actors and knowledge dissemination – technical, environmental and economical. The project was financed by the Finnish Ministry of Environment, run by Landskapets Fastighetsverk and coordinated by Invenire. htt
Så in i vassen – So much reed (2021–22)
The project was a collaboration between the fishery association at Brändö municipality and local farmers toharvest and utilise reed (Phragmites australis) in a regenerative way as a resource in the local nutrient cycle, while also improving biodiversity in coastal areas. The project was financed by Lokalkraft Leader Åland, run by Brändö fishery association and coordinated by Invenire.
Hungry for Saltvik (2019–21)
The goal of the project was to improve nutrient circulation within Saltvik municipality area, retaining the nutrients that were already within the local food system. Another goal of the project was to activate and strengthen food citizenship. The project’s main financer was the Finnish Ministry of Environment, with co-financing from Orkla Confectionery & Snacks Finland. The project was run and coordinated by Invenire.
Fragility is the current key problem
The big problem we are facing today is that all too many of our rural landscapes and communities are fragile. This is because they are
reliant on key inputs such as energy and fertilisers from outside of their own landscape and their own control
and
trapped in a system of production that is working against nature, not with it.
Recently, we’ve all witnessed how sudden shocks, such as pandemics, wars and macroeconomic disturbances, wreak havoc on fragile landscapes and communities – all the while long-term crises, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, sap the lifeforce out of them too.
Rural landscapes hold the key
While too fragile today, many landscapes hold underutilised resources that could be activated to improve the economic and environmental performance of the landscape. In doing so, the reliance on outside input streams decreases, allowing to retain and create more value within the landscape. By focusing on the key components of becoming fossil free, nutrient neutral, biodiversity enhancing and water smart, we believe that rural landscapes are headed towards a thriving future.
Circularity is about the value we already have
A thriving rural landscape is one that doesn’t allow value to be wasted – that would be like throwing money away. Therefore, our key task is to identify, retain and refine value that is already embedded in the landscape and to prevent it from escaping.
What does circularity mean in practice? It means that everything that goes into the system is retained there as long as possible, in one form or another. Every input that is new to the system is created in a way that is as smart as possible – using raw materials, energy and other inputs efficiently and taking circularity into consideration already in the design phase. Every input that already exists within the system is retained there as long as possible – any opportunity for reusing and refining is utilised until efficient recycling is the final step.
People-powered stewardship
A thriving rural landscape is one which is stewarded by you and me – it’s not something that is defined, constructed or governed from above and outside.
What does people-powered stewardship mean in practice? It means that we all claim our active Landscape Citizenship – recognising that we all can take various active roles within the system and engage in its workings in multiple ways ranging from consumption to production to ownership and more. For many of us, this requires a shift in mindset, from perceiving the landscape as being out of our influence and reach, to considering it to be something in which we personally can and should have a say in and take responsibility for.
WHO WE ARE
We at Invenire believe business has the potential to make a positive impact on the world and bring positive change. We help companies design and deliver resilient and regenerative systems, products and services. We work with farmers, land and forest owners, companies within food, energy and biomaterials, municipalities and other local authorities, as well as NGOs and research institutions.
Do you need help with refining your own business or your rural landscape to be more resilient and regenerative? Do you have a project idea you’d like to develop with us or are you looking for a project leader? Are you looking for a presentation for your event or are you interested in creating a whole workshop?
Let’s talk!
Patricia Wiklund
Johanna Tanhuanpää