Finnish botanist turns endangered plant cultivation into a business

Jere Nieminen, a 49-year-old doctor of administrative sciences, has built a business around cultivating endangered and protected native plants through his company, Tuleva luonto, based in Tampere, Yle reports.

The firm collects seeds from Finnish wild plants and grows them into seedlings to restore natural habitats and strengthen threatened species. Nieminen tracks each seed’s origin with scientific precision, recording GPS coordinates, collection time, collector, site description, and the proportion of the local population’s seed production taken.

His approach prioritizes local genetics, sourcing seeds within a two-kilometre radius for projects like Tampere’s Korpinpuisto meadow. The method, known as seed-based restoration, is well-established in Europe and North America, where it has been practiced since the 1980s and 1990s.

Nieminen’s path began over 15 years ago with guerrilla gardening—illegally sowing wild plant seeds in urban spaces. One of his earliest meadows, planted without permission near Tampere University, still thrives today. He later co-founded the Villi vyöhyke conservation association, which collaborated with the city on meadow experiments.

Tuleva luonto now works with clients including the city of Tampere, Aalto University in Espoo, Saint-Gobain Finland in Salo, and Metsäfibre’s bioproduct mill in Kemi. In Salo, the company grows the highly endangered kangasraunikki and hietaneilikka under special permits from the Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority. The seedlings, nurtured in an outdoor nursery, will be used to restore a quarry site in Kiikala, replacing traditional afforestation with a sun-exposed slope ecosystem.

“We are developing post-extraction land rehabilitation in a way that supports biodiversity,” said Anne-Mari Frilander, environmental specialist at Saint-Gobain Finland.

Nieminen, who previously worked at the university, said his dream job required outdoor work and hands-on action—something he couldn’t find behind a desk. His company is among the first in Finland to adopt this model, benefiting, as he puts it, from “the advantage of the follower”—learning from established practices abroad.