Environmental Issues of 10Mila

Abstract

Orienteering is a sport strongly linked with nature. Most of the competitions are organised in forests and, as the number of runners across Europe is significant, there is an obvious threat to our environment in terms of event organisation and impact on nature after the event is over.

The purpose of the study was to gather data from the event of 10 Mila from past several years and provide them to organisers of the Finnish Jukola. The material served to the experience exchange and inspiration.

The data were collected and summarized from old 10 Mila reports, articles, personal experiences and people from the 10 Mila organising team.

It was found that organising an event for over 10 000 people requires long term preparation that normally start a couple of years before the actual event is held. Issues like toilets, water, permits, solid waste had to be planned beforehand and issues that came up during the competition had to be solved efficiently in order to maintain smooth organization. The thesis underlines the necessity to understand that not only data in numbers are important, but data in form of experience are needed, as well.

The findings suggest being well prepared for such a competition is crucial. The results act as a source of information for Jukola organisers if they want to prevent problems. Considerably more work will need to be done in order to summarise other side environmental issues such as length of recovery of the forest after big orienteering events or disturbing of animals in breeding season.