Imatra doubles Crowdsorsa prize pot to €3,500 to fight lupin this summer

Imatra city announced in a press release on ePressi that it will run a crowdsourced invasive species control campaign with the Crowdsorsa mobile game starting in June and has doubled the local reward pot to €3,500 for participants this summer.

City gardener Erika Luhtanen said crews will mow lupin and Himalayan balsam, treat giant hogweed chemically and dig out certain shrubs by the roots, and that volunteers are needed because lupin has spread widely and is difficult to eliminate.

Players use the app to locate invasive plant patches on a map, walk around an infestation to record a short before-video, clear the area and then record an after-video. Videos must be uploaded within 72 hours or they are automatically rejected; accepted tasks pay a reward that can be transferred to the player’s bank account. Targets turn from a red plant icon to green about two weeks after initial removal, signalling when a site can be retreated.

Crowdsorsa says the app has been updated based on user and municipal feedback to simplify re-treatment and tighten quality controls. When half of the local reward budget is spent, the playable map narrows to already-cleared sites to prioritise follow-up work. The app also adds clearer picture guides and a short test to ensure players can identify species and basic removal principles.

Toni Paju, Crowdsorsa’s CEO, highlighted last year’s scale: participants in Finland cleared more than 2.8 million square metres of invasive plants, and he said the company hopes Imatra will help set a new record. Crowdsorsa is a Tampere-based startup; its game is in use in more than 80 Finnish municipalities and has been deployed in Sweden, Canada and several other countries.