Nature and the Wildlife Estates Award
Oitbacka Gård sits on the southern shore of Lake Loojärvi in Kirkkonummi, at the heart of an estate of roughly 350 hectares — 90 hectares of field and 230 of forest. The landscape has remained remarkably intact: the fields, forests, park and gravel courtyards look much as they did a century ago. In 2026 this long-term work earned European recognition, when the estate received the Wildlife Estates quality label.
What is the Wildlife Estates award?
Wildlife Estates is a European quality label for land and forest areas managed with responsible stewardship. Coordinated by the European Landowners’ Organization, it rests on the principle of “conservation through wise use” — protecting nature by using it wisely. In Finland, applications are assessed by the Foundation for Nature and Game Management.
The label calls for long-term, systematic work. Among the things the assessment looks at are:
- preserving and enhancing biodiversity
- managing habitats
- sustainable game and fisheries management
- a documented management plan and how it is carried out in practice
Oitbacka Gård received the award at the Landowners’ Association Summer Days in June 2026.
Land stewardship at Oitbacka
Land stewardship at Oitbacka is all-round work for biodiversity and sustainable game management. In practice, that means:
- Caring for the heritage landscape and traditional biotopes — grazing animals keep the landscape open and help return it to its natural state
- Supporting a rich bird population — nesting boxes have been set up in the breeding areas, and part of the land is deliberately left unmown and wild
- Sustainable management of forest and farmland as part of the whole
- Maintaining the historic buildings, an essential part of preserving the cultural landscape
- Caring for the waterways, for example through management fishing
The award is proof that long-term work pays off. It encourages us to keep going and to cherish this whole for the generations to come.
Highland cattle and the estate's animals
Highland cattle graze the estate’s pastures — long-haired, hardy animals that can often be found down by the shore, where they help keep the heritage landscape open. They are a favourite with visitors and a familiar sight on Oitbacka Gård’s Instagram account too.
Drive through the estate grounds and you are bound to come across dozens of different species. That is the diversity and abundance we cherish — here, nature is something you can almost reach out and touch.
A heritage landscape preserved by choice
There is no asphalt at Oitbacka, and none is on the way. The gravel courtyards, the old buildings and the open farmland are a deliberate choice: the estate wants to keep a rural idyll where someone stepping out of a time machine a hundred years ago would barely notice the difference. Rare tree species planted in the 19th century grow in the park, and the grounds are ringed by the same fields that have been cultivated since the days of the Kiseleff family.
Nature as the stage for celebrations and shoots
The estate’s nature is not just a backdrop — it is part of the experience:
- Wedding photographs in the park, across the fields and in the estate’s landscapes
- Film productions drawing on a genuine rural setting no studio can offer
- Guests arriving through open countryside, and sauna evenings whose calm comes from the nature all around
Welcome to experience
the estate's nature in person
The best way to understand the atmosphere of Oitbacka is to see it for yourself.
Book a visit.
Tel. 040-57 33449
info@oitbackagard.com
