2023

Welcome to the forest

Entry type: Single project

Country/area: Finland

Publishing organisation: Helsingin Sanomat

Organisation size: Big

Publication date: 2022-06-09

Language: Finnish

Authors: Petja Pelli, Kimmo Penttinen, Salla Vuorikoski, Emil Ehnström, Juho Salminen, Petri Salmén

Biography:

Petja Pelli, text
Kimmo Penttinen, pictures
Emil Ehnström, GIS analysis
Petri Salmén, graphics
Salla Vuorikoski and Juho Salminen, producing

Project description:

This investigative GIS project shows that publicly owned forest industry cuts forest from publicly owned outdoor areas.

Impact reached:

In Finland there are five national hiking areas that were established by law for outdoor recreation.

We were able to obtain forest cutting data that shows clearly how the other hand of government is cutting forest from areas that the other hand is trying to offer for people to use for outdoor recreation.

Techniques/technologies used:

Information requests, open data, QGIS.

Context about the project:

Environmental open data and requesting that data from authorities in a possible way to find good stories.

What can other journalists learn from this project?

In a country full of forest this is a good topic for investigative and data journalism.

Project links:

https://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/art-2000008825043.html