Kaisa Johanna Raatikainen

• PhD
• Senior Research Scientist at Finnish Environment Institute

Landscapes are places where multiple social-ecological relations thrive. However, due to intensification of industrial land-uses, they are losing their diversity of species and functions, languages and practices, thereby influencing the ways in which people interact with each other and non-human beings across the globe. A better understanding of su...

Biodiversity loss is an immense ecological crisis of our time. But while "biodiversity" has become a buzz-word in media and policy, conservationists have found it difficult to build a common understanding on the nature and severity of biodiversity loss and the means to tackle it. Perhaps surprisingly, many biologists and philosophers have proposed...

Context Intensive land use and exploitation of natural resources are the main direct drivers of biodiversity loss. Transformative changes in land management are called for as conservation and management actions have not been sufficient to support the viability of species populations. It has been proposed that to solve the sufficiency problem one co...

Land-use policies aim at enhancing the sustainable use of natural resources. The Triad approach has been suggested to balance the social, ecological, and economic demands of forested landscapes. The core idea is to enhance multifunctionality at the landscape level by allocating landscape zones with specific management priorities , i.e., production...

Supporting sustainability requires understanding human–nature relations, which we approached as social constructions that can be studied through nature-related discourses. We examined human–nature relations in Finland by combining approaches from environmental social sciences and arts-based research into a mixed-methods design. A public online surv...

“Landscape” refers to a perceivable spatial level shaped by socio-ecological interactions and represents the systems where people live. Human societies have globally transformed landscapes to meet their needs, e.g., nutrition or shelter, according to cultural preferences. This human domination of land has resulted in considerable competition for sp...

This article examines the eligibility of a theatre-based method in transdisciplinary research into human–nature connectedness. We elaborate on a need to refine scientific tools with creative means of art to find novel ways to explore dimensions of human–nature relations unobtainable with conventional scientific methods. Over the past few decades, a...

We propose to consider semi-natural habitats—hotspots for biodiversity—being caught in a socio-ecological extinction vortex , similar to the phenomenon described for species threatened with extinction. These habitats are essentially socioecological systems, in which socioeconomic drivers are interlinked with ecological processes. We identify four h...

Tensions between the well-being of present humans, future humans, and nonhuman nature manifest in social protests and political and academic debates over the future of Earth. The increasing consumption of natural resources no longer increases, let alone equalises, human well-being, but has led to the current ecological crisis and harms both human a...

Scientists have warned decision-makers about the severe consequences of the global environmental crisis since the 1970s. Yet ecological degradation con- tinues and little has been done to address climate change. We investigated early-career conservation researchers' (ECR) perspectives on, and prioritization of, actions furthering sustainability. We...

The European continent contains substantial areas of semi-natural habitats, mostly grasslands, which are among the most endangered habitats in Europe. Their continued existence depends on some form of human activity, for either production or conservation purposes, or both. We examined the share of semi-natural grasslands within the general grasslan...

Questions Agricultural intensification has led to the decline of biodiverse meadows and other semi-natural grasslands. Road verges offer potential alternative habitats for meadow species, but they may not be suitable for all meadow species due to different soil properties, frequent disturbances, pollution or suboptimal management. Are the communiti...

This perspective paper synthesises the special issue ‘Human-nature connectedness as a leverage point for sustainability transformation’. Based on the articles in this special issue, we aim to foster the operationalisation of the leverage points perspective to shape human-nature relations to enable sustainability transformations. Specifically, we dr...

Tensions between the well-being of present humans, future humans, and nonhuman nature manifest in social protests and political and academic debates over the future of Earth. The increasing consumption of natural resources no longer increases, let alone equalises, human well-being, but has led to the current ecological crisis. While the crisis has...

International Socially Engaged Art Symposium (ISEAS) was held in Raseborg, Finland, the first time in 2017. The ISEAS is an annual art gathering where artists are working intensively together through the methods of participatory art. Artists implement different possibilities of intervention with local communities and in public space. This book desc...

Art symposiums and similar gatherings in which international artists come together to collaborate are a longstanding tradition of the global art world. In 2019, artists and environmental researchers and experts were invited to work with a local school on environmental issues to create place-specific art and scientific collaborations. Three interdis...

Arts-based practices can support sustainability, combined with research that points out needs for intervention. We practiced environmental sensitivity and dialogic art with fifth-grade school pupils as part of an International Socially Engaged Art Symposium (ISEAS2019). Using arts-based action research methodology, our case study focused on the opp...

Traditional rural biotopes such as semi-natural grasslands and wood-pastures are among the most threatened biotopes in Finland. Archipelago Sea area hosts an especially representative collection of these biotopes, considering both their combined area and average quality. We surveyed birds, vascular plants, bryophytes, polypores and ground-inhabitin...

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) Biosphere Reserves aim to be flagships of sustainable landscapes. Many of them are important locations for tourism and leisure activities. We explored the perceptions of short-term visitors and summer residents on ecosystem services (ESs) tied to characteristic habita...

Context Habitat loss is a major threat to biodiversity. It can create temporal lags in decline of species in relation to destruction of habitat coverage. Plant species specialized in semi-natural grasslands, especially meadows, often express such extinction debt. Objectives We studied habitat loss and fragmentation of meadows and examined whether...

“Bull by the Horns” -project initiated landscape management and promoted biodiversity associated with diminishing High Nature Value farmland habitats in Finland. A specific focus was on grazed semi-natural grasslands and wood-pastures which are collectively referred to as traditional rural biotopes (TRBs). Collaboration among project workers, non-f...

This research focuses on conservation of traditional rural biotopes, which are biodiverse meadows and wood-pastures that are dependent on management through grazing or mowing. These low-intensity management actions have become rare as a result of agricultural modernisation. I have utilised a social-ecological approach in order to seek for the most...

Traditional rural biotopes (TRBs) are threatened habitats that host significant biodiversity and several ecosystem services, and depend on active management such as low-intensity grazing. The current study explores private landowners' decision-making on TRB management and abandonment within a social-ecological system framework. We provide insight i...

This report is in Finnish, with short English summary: Management of semi-natural grasslands and natural pastures is among the most vital actions for maintaining the biodiversity in Finnish nature. Strictly protected private and state-owned areas have a key role in preserving of the habitats and species, as well as the cultural and landscape values...

A conceptual framework on a PhD research project

There is a growing amount of empirical evidence that premating reproductive isolation of two closely related species can be reinforced by natural selection arising from avoidance of maladaptive hybridization. However, as an alternative for this popular reinforcement theory, it has been suggested that learning to prefer conspecifics or to discrimina...

One explanation for hybridization between species is the fitness benefits it occasionally confers to the hybridizing individuals. This explanation is possible in species that have evolved alternative male reproductive tactics: individuals with inferior tactics might be more prone to hybridization provided it increases their reproductive success and...