Lieksa launches €3,000 crowdsourced campaign to remove giant hogweed and lupin

According to ePressi, Lieksa will run a crowdsourced invasive-species control campaign from 8 June to 31 August 2026, offering a total of €3,000 in rewards to participants who remove giant hogweed and lupin using the Crowdsorsa mobile game.

The city is participating for the first time. Environmental protection officer Ritva Majoinen said the idea came from residents: "Last year we didn’t quite manage to join the game, but this year we are participating eagerly. We have large stands of lupin and giant hogweed in Lieksa, so those species were chosen for our area. I hope as many people as possible take up the game and join in controlling invasive species. Especially for young people this could be a good way to earn some pocket money."

Players find marked sites on an in-app map and video the area by walking around it. They remove all target plants, then re-walk and video the cleared site so the app can mark it as treated. Videos must be uploaded within 72 hours for quality checks; uploads left pending are automatically rejected. A site flagged as cleared turns from red to green on the map about two weeks after the first removal, which helps with follow-up targeting.

Payouts are calculated automatically based on cleared area, plant density and species; players can earn up to €20 per hour on some tasks. Local players can also find bonus areas on the map that pay higher rewards. The campaign runs until the local budget is exhausted or 31 August, whichever comes first.

The app has been updated this season with clearer visual instructions, picture cards and a short quiz that appears with each local task to ensure users can identify species and understand basic removal principles. When 50 percent of a local reward budget has been used, the playable area is limited to previously treated sites to prioritise follow-up clearing.

The Tampere-based startup says the platform has been used in seven countries, and that last year participants in invasive-species tasks in Finland — about one third of them young people — cleared more than 2.8 million square metres. "That's an impressive achievement. I believe this summer we can reach a new record again," CEO Toni Paju said.