Enhancing a participatory approach to ecological restoration with the River Guardian Program of Koitajoki

The River Guardian Program is based on the interests and motivations of the guardians themselves. The guardians choose the ways and methods they wish to participate in the program. They also choose whether they prefer to work solo, with family members or as a larger group of villagers. 

This is a different approach from more conventional citizen science or volunteer monitoring where scientists set the methods, protocols, and objectives of the monitoring efforts which are then followed by volunteers. A bottom-up community-based approach ensures that community-defined issues are addressed and allows a reciprocal dialogue between community members and the restoration project. River guardians are involved in planning their monitoring work as well as in interpreting the results. 

Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is applied throughout the process, including when river guardians work with other community members, for example when conducting interviews. 

There is no “one size fits all” for being a river guardian. Some guardians especially enjoy joining the practical restoration actions, such as blocking the ditches of a drained peatland, or creating spawning sites for migrating fish, while others prefer to solely focus on their monitoring efforts. Offering several ways to participate helps keep many people with different interests and strengths involved. The guardians can also present suggestions of what they would like to have organized as part of the program, such as workshops. 

Snowchange has worked in the Koitajoki Catchment since 2017. The Koitajoki Restoration Project started in 2022 and the River Guardian Program kicked off in 2023. In early 2025, one of the river guardians mentioned that only after three years, people in the area have gotten aware of the restoration project and started seeing it as a truly good thing. Gaining acceptance is a slow process. In addition, long-term continuity in a river guardian’s own observations builds motivation as one can see the multitude of their own observations and already draw some conclusions based on them.

By taking active part in various village events and meetings, Snowchange has tried to openly communicate about the restoration plans and to be open about the funding and its spending locally. River guardians have found that it is crucial that an organization shares what they have concretely done in the area and gives possibilities for people to get involved. 

River Guardian Meetings are held twice a year, in addition to informal meetings with individual guardians. Issues are also communicated via a mailing list as well as in a WhatsApp group.

River guardians can also be found to act as “mediators” in their communities. When information of the restoration project is transferred to villages through them, it is more likely trusted, and people might be more eager to join events. 

The River Guardian Program has also enabled the communities themselves to communicate their knowledge through different methods, such as a community theatre play. 

River guardians exchange with Snowchange researchers about their findings. The knowledge and observations of river guardians play a valuable role in the scientific efforts of monitoring restoration outcomes as well as the planning of restoration sites. Examples of such collaboration include the detection of endangered species, their populations and movements, water quality and flow measurements as well as drone footage of restoration sites. Interviews with Elders can reveal little-known pasts which can be used as ecological baseline information regarding restoration. Those river guardians who are willing to develop their monitoring efforts towards a certain direction, are supported by researchers to find new ideas and practices. 

In 2025, one of the river guardians initiated and leads a study focusing on the experiences, thoughts, feelings and ideas of the guardians themselves with regards their role as river guardians.