Page - 350 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

350 Box 15.2: Healthy Parks, Healthy People  – Finland Veikko Virkkunen, Metsähallitus, Parks and Wildlife Finland, veikko. virkkunen@metsa.fi Parks and Wildlife Finland (PWF) manages all of Finland’s national parks, other state-owned protected areas and cultural heritage sites, as well as their hiking services. As the global awareness and evidence on the benefits of diverse nature and outdoor recreation for human health and well-being have significantly increased over the last few years, PWF has been implementing the HPHPF programme since 2010. The programme is a policy example to deal with the spread of chronic illnesses, increasing welfare costs, and securing funding for biodiversity conservation. As such, the overall goal of HPHPF is that Finnish health and well-being is improved by diverse nature. HPHPF consists of three main themes, as well as prioritized measures, to attain these goals by 2025: 1. From nearby nature to national parks Major cities in Finland can contribute to health by offering well- functioning, continuous green space serving the outdoor recreation requirements of local people. PWF is working with partnership networks between managers of public greenspaces, for example in the cities of Oulu, Kajaani and Helsinki. The focus of the manager networks is to improve the quality, accessibility and awareness of the various sites and communicate them together effectively. 2. Everyone outdoors Everyone should have equal opportunities to enjoy the green environments. Bold initiatives lower the threshold for engaging in outdoor recreation, making it easy and fun throughout the year. PWF improves the service design of popular protected areas for new customers, e.g. disabled people (see Fig.  15.1a), and experts in the Finnish Adapted Physical Activity Federation. Fig. 15.1 Facilitating the use of the outdoors for all. (a) Accessible structures and trails for disabled people in Hossa National Park; (b) Family contributing during the Shepherd Weeks (continued) H. Keune et al.