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Looking for Balance Kuusamo - The Call of the Wild
If you could live and work anywhere in the world, what factors would you consider before making your decision? If asked this question, many of us would list things like proximity to nature, friendly atmosphere, a sustainable way of life, a wealth of leisure-time activities to choose from, diverse employment opportunities and short transit times to and from work. It sounds so idyllic, that one wonders: Do such places even exist? The answer is yes. And no, not all of them are on the other side of the world.
TEXT: KIRA KAISLA
In Tune with Nature
If you’re looking for the perfect place to escape the hectic pace of big city life, Kuusamo should be at the top of your list. Located just south of the Arctic Circle in the eastern part of Finland, Kuusamo is well known for its beautiful nature, fantastic skiing and friendly atmosphere.
For decades, the area was primarily known as a winter destination that quieted down for the summer, which meant that employment was mostly seasonal. These days activities are no longer limited by season and Kuusamo is as busy during the summer as it is in the winters. Employment opportunities have followed suit and year-round jobs are widely available.
Kuusamo has a permanent population of about 15,000, but receives more than a million visitors annually in the form of tourists and vacation dwellers. As a result, the town is a delightful mix of small-town friendliness and big-city vibrancy. There is a sense of community rarely felt in bigger cities, which is evident in the way the town’s mayor, Jouko Manninen talks about Kuusamo and his life there.
Although the changing of the seasons no longer means the disappearance of tourists and jobs, seasons still have a big impact in the lives of people living in Kuusamo. Mayor Manninen describes his life as living in sync with nature’s cycles: activities, food and work all shift and evolve with the seasons. Every season brings its own culinary delights like forest mushrooms in the spring and autumn, Nordic berries in the summer, fowl and game meats in the autumn and freshly-caught fish all year-round. There is a time for busy activity and a time for regrouping and recharging, summer days filled with light and a winter of cozy nights.
Small But Full of Life
Cross-country skiing enthusiasts around the world have come to equate the remote town with the Nordic Opening, a cross-country skiing event that traditionally opens the FIS Cross-Country World Cup and attracts hundreds of spectators and members of the media from around the world. The town also hosts the annual Kuusamo Nature Photo Festival and boasts more than 60 restaurants, many of which offer local seasonal food that is sure to please even the most discerning palate.
The town calendar is filled with happenings and events to attend, and the selection of leisure-time activities is nearly endless. Those who enjoy being in nature can enjoy activities like hiking, snowshoeing, ice fishing or mushroom picking. Nor has the town forgotten sports enthusiasts; with a list that includes frisbee golf and downhill mountain biking in the summer, skiing and snowmobiling in the winter, to name just a few, everyone can find something to get excited about.
Growing, But Sustainably
Employment opportunties in most Finnish rural towns of similar size are limited, but the biggest employers in the Kuusamo area, the forest and tourism industries, are steadily growing and show no signs of slowing down. In the past, tourism and forestry have not had the best of reputations when it comes to sustainability, but both industries are committed to a more sustainable future. They are constantly working not only to increase the sustainability of their existing activities, but also to ensure all their future activites are environment friendly from the get-go. For the Kuusamo area this means new and varied employment opportunities as the industries evolve.
Kuusamo welcomes this change, and the town itself is also looking towards circular economy models to achieve carbon neutrality. Currently, there are several ambitious projects either already under way or planned for the future. One such project is Kuubio, a bioindustry industrial area operating on a bioeconomic model. The aim is to enable the recycling of all waste in the Kuusamo area within the next few years by turning it into energy. At the same time, the town is planning to become energy independent by 2030 by taking advantage of solar and wind energy as well as biofuel.
Remote and Connected
Surrounded by vast woodland areas as well as hills, fells, lakes and national parks, Kuusamo can truly be said to be in the middle of nowhere. But thanks to a well-connected road network and an airport with daily flights to and from Helsinki, it is not as remote as it might at first seem. According to Mayor Manninen, it only takes three hours to get from his doorstep in Kuusamo to Helsinki.
Of course, in today’s hectic world being remote isn’t necessarily a problem and might actually be an advantage. With both 5G and fiber-optic networks covering the area, w, at least part of the time. Already many locals take advantage of this possibility and the proximity of nature to schedule their working days to allow taking a lunch-time hike in the forest trails or an afternoon swim in a nearby lake. And what better place to enjoy better work-life balance than Kuusamo – the small town that has it all. |
Read more at kuusamo.fi/en
At the Helm
Jouko Manninen, who was elected Mayor of Kuusamo in 2015, is originally from Kuusamo but spent nearly two decades studying and working elsewhere in Finland before returning to his roots with his wife. He feels very optimistic about the town’s future and is enthusiastic about the changes he has already seen and expects to see in the coming years.
Mayor Manninen envisions the town becoming carbon neutral by 2030, thanks to several large-scale projects that will also bring new employment opportunities to the area. He estimates that a thousand new jobs will open in Kuusamo over the course of the next two to three years. Some of these jobs will become available due to the normal retirement process and regular job changes, and the rest will be entirely new jobs created for said projects. The town of Kuusamo welcomes both newcomers and returnees who want to be part of the future of this thriving area. |
