Nature in Finland

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Whooper swan
Hanging birch trees
lily of the valley

In the nature of Finland a total of about 42,000 species are of animals, plants and fungi, including 65 species of mammals. The biodiversity is less in the area of ​​the cold temperate climate than in more southern areas. However, the wilderness of Finland offers a habitat for numerous animals that are rarely found in the rest of Europe.

The Saimaa ringed seal occurs worldwide only in the Saimaa lake area and is the symbol of nature conservation in Finland. The country's national bird is the whooper swan , the national flower is the lily of the valley and the national tree is the silver birch .

As of June 2017, the country has forty national parks with a total area of ​​almost 10,000 square kilometers.

flora

Finland is the most forested country in Europe: 86% of the land area is forested. There are three vegetation zones from north to south . Most of Finland belongs to the boreal coniferous forest zone (taiga). It is characterized by the short vegetation period , nutrient-poor soils on which the trees grow only slowly, the predominance of coniferous plants and a small number of tree species. Dominate pine (50%) and spruce (30%), the most common deciduous tree is the birch (16.5%). The ground is covered with blueberry bushes and mosses , and to the north with lichens .

Mixed forests predominate only on the southwest coast and on the offshore archipelago . There are also tree species that do not grow in Finland, such as oak . The extreme north of Lapland is largely treeless, in low elevations only squat birch trees grow, in higher elevations there is tundra-like vegetation.

A third of the land area of ​​Finland originally consisted of moorland , around half of this area was drained for cultivated land in the past centuries . In the south peat-rich raised bogs dominate , north of it aapamoore. Most of the moorland is covered with swamp forests.

Fungi

In addition to flora and fauna, the mushrooms form their own kingdom . There are around 5584 known species in Finland.

fauna

Prepared Saimaa ringed seal in the Natural History Museum in Helsinki

Despite intensive hunting, moose are very numerous throughout Finland. Although over a third of the moose are shot every year, the population remains stable at over 100,000 after the end of the hunting season. The large elk population poses a danger to road traffic because serious accidents with the animals occur again and again. Reindeer can be found everywhere in the north of the country . The approximately 200,000 reindeer are semi-domesticated and roam free throughout the year, in late autumn their owners round up the animals and look for the animals for slaughter. The wild reindeer is much rarer . Once widespread in large parts of Finland, it was eradicated at the end of the 19th century, before a small population returned to Kainuu and North Karelia from Russia in the 1950s . Large numbers of white-tailed deer brought in from America have become native to southern and western Finland .

The predator populations have been growing for years due to the success of protective measures; the number of Finnish brown bears and lynxes is now over 1000 individuals each, and that of wolves around 200. In the meantime, these animals are even allowed to be hunted to a limited extent again. A remaining population of around 150 wolverines lives in the Finnish part of Lapland . The arctic fox was once quite common across the country, but was almost wiped out by fur hunters in the early 20th century. The red fox , on the other hand, is still very common today, as has the raccoon dog for several decades , which has spread from Russia.

The Saimaa ringed seal occurs worldwide only in the Saimaa lake area. This rare freshwater subspecies of the ringed seal could be saved from extinction through targeted protective measures and is therefore also the symbol of nature conservation in Finland. With a population of only about 260 animals (as of 2009) it is one of the most threatened seals in the world. The flying squirrel , which is only found in Finland and Estonia in the European Union , also enjoys special protection .

Finland's bird life includes over 430 species, including golden eagles and white-tailed eagles , as well as chicken birds such as capercaillie , black grouse , hazel grouse and red grouse , as well as numerous water bird species. The whooper swan is considered the Finnish national bird because of its role in Finnish mythology . This species, too, could be saved through a strict hunting ban: if only 15 breeding pairs were counted in the 1950s, today there are again around 1,500.

natural reserve

About 13 percent of Finland's land area is protected. On June 17, 2017, the 40th national park in the country was opened with the Hossa National Park . Since then, these have a total area of ​​9892 square kilometers (2.7% of the total area of ​​Finland). The Lemmenjoki and Urho Kekkonen National Park in Lapland are each over 2500 km² in size.

Like other areas maintained by the state forest administration ( Metsähallitus ), Hossa was not a real nature reserve. Although it was part of Natura 2000 , about a third of its forests were felled by Metsähallitus . In December 2011, extensive deforestation plans in southwestern Hossa sparked resistance from tourist and nature conservation organizations in the region. The reason for the rededication in the year of the centenary was also the importance of the region for Finnish independence .

In 2012, 1865 areas with 49,000 km² were integrated into the European Natura 2000 network.

The right of public access allowed in Finland, as in other countries of the north, all the people to move under certain restrictions free in nature. Picking berries and mushrooms and fishing are permitted. In the national parks this is quite limited.

Web links

Commons : Nature in Finland  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Virtual Finland: The nature and landscape of Finland ( Memento of October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Ekkehard Militz: Finland . S. 67 .
  3. ^ Metla (Finnish Institute for Forest Research) .
  4. ↑ borealforest.org: Finland - Forests and Forestry .
  5. ↑ As of 2004, source: Research Institute for Game and Fish Management (Finnish) ( Memento from July 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Helsinki Times: Saimaa's seals on the brink of extinction. Issue 13, 2009
  7. ↑ finland.fi: Nature. (accessed November 30, 2017)
  8. ↑ finland.fi: Jubilee park protects Finnish treasures. (accessed November 30, 2017)
  9. ↑ Antti Kettumäki: vuoden retkeilykohteeseen suunnitellaan hakkuita. In: www.yle.fi. YLE Kainuu, December 2, 2011, archived from the original on August 22, 2013 ; Retrieved November 6, 2017 (Finnish).
  10. ^ Metsähallitus : Natura 2000 Areas: Established to Protect Biotopes and Species. (accessed November 30, 2017)