One Million Birdhouses

Yle Nature’s ‘One Million Birdhouses’-campaign has two targets: publicise the fact that the amount of birds is decreasing rapidly. And: get people to take action for birds by building nesting boxes. The idea for this campaign was born when two nature journalist from Yle were hiking in a winter forest, and rested for a while sitting in a heap of snow. After discussing the diminishing number of old forests and the lack of suitable nesting places, one of them said: ‘Think if we could build a million nesting boxes!’ The team at the Finnish broadcaster Yle took it from there. At the core of the campaign is its website: yle.fi/miljoonaponttoa. It does not have its own radio- or TV-show, but the team has produced content for many programmes. ‘Birdbox madness’ spread also outside Yle, to newspapers, commercial radio stations, all big nature organisations. The campaign started in spring 2016 and now, before the second spring starts, the Finns have registered nearly 900,000 nesting boxes. One million nesting boxes is an amazing accomplishment in a country of 5.5 million inhabitants. The amount of work needed is equal to one person working night and day for 22 years. The need and willingness to do something concrete to help nature has surprised all, and warmed the hearts of all.