A Million Trees
To Finland

Guest included: Petteri Vanninen - Dr. Senior Scientist, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Marko Röhr - Film producer and director, MRP Matila Röhr Productions Oy, Tiina Piilola – Writer and Janne Korhonen - Doctor of Science (Agriculture and Forestry).
The seminar was organized together with Lake Saimaa Nature Centre, Kalevala Women´s Associaltion.

"Riihisaari-Savonlinna Museum is pleased to announce its participation in the A Million Trees to Finland project. We find the project to be a significant and highly innovative way of combining art, nature, and climate activism and a topic which is strongly allied with our own activities and values.
Riihisaari-Savonlinna Museum is part of the historical site of Olavinlinna Castle at the intersection of urban and natural environments and surrounded by Lake Saimaa. Riihisaari beautifully brings together nature, art, and community with rich layers of history and island culture."

Nikke Kaartinen, Museum Director at Riihisaari Savonlinna Museum

Tiina Piilola has published the 2019 non-fiction Kalevala Naiset (Kustantamo S&S), which is based on her 2017 dissertation reviewed at the University of Jyväskylä. She works as a freelance writer and teacher at the University of Jyväskylä. She is also a member of the board of the Kalevala Women's Union.

In his presentation “Women of the Kalevala Collaborating with Nature”, Piilola reflects on the significance of nature in the story of the key female characters in our national epic. What does water mean in the story of Aino, what does the forest mean in the story of Marjata? And what can Lemminkäinen's mother teach modern Finns about respecting nature?

"Trees and humans drink the same water. Tree and human cells respire the same oxygen. We both originate from invisible air and have become visible. Are we that different, after all?"
Ph.D. Janne Korhonen is a researcher studying the physical interaction between forests and the atmosphere. In 2020, he defended his Doctoral thesis 'Nitrogen cycling from the perspective of boreal Scots pine trees' at the University of Helsinki. Janne has been working in the interface between science and arts for example in Carbon Tree project and Climate Whirl arts program. At the moment, Janne is working with science communications at Viikki Plant Science Centre, University of Helsinki.

Petteri Vanninen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Natural Resources Center. Vanninen's research interests include forest ecology, tree structure and carbon balance, and forest-related learning environments. His development work, which is focused on learning environments and the popularization of research information, has received various awards. Vanninen’s work continues to explore this increasingly vital research area – for example at the Natural Resources Centre's research park and its VR park.

Managing director, producer, director Marko Röhr studied at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, majoring in Business Management Strategies and in the Economical Structures of the International and Domestic Film Industry. Additional media studies at the Film Business Schoolin Madrid and Documentary Campus Masterclass in Germany. Member of the European Film Academy since 1999. Producer of 36 cinema released films in all genres from epic war movies to animation and nature documentaries. Producer of over 60 film, documentary and drama series productions. Director and writer of several nature and underwater productions, specializing in Arctic nature and underwater films. Marko has been awarded numerous prizes from his productions and has received the honour of Producer of the Year twice (2000, 2016). As a director of underwater and nature films he has received tens of awards around the world, latest in China (Best Director: Gold Panda in International Documentary Film Festival, Chengdu).