Laponia world heritage
Laponia, the World Heritage area in Lapland is a Sami cultural landscape with traces of human activities which go back all the way to the Ice Age. From time immemorial the Sami have lived in this area, first as hunters and fishers and later as reindeer herders and settlers.
The World Heritage area is also an important natural landscape with mountains, deltas, virgin forests and hundreds of glaciers and Western Europe´s largest marshlands. It is also an area rich in animal and plant life that has several species on the verge of extinction.
Both due to the Sami culture and the natural value of the environment, this region merits its inclusion in the World Heritage list. A world heritage area is a place of cultural or natural importance, or both as in this case, which is of such value that its preservation is a priority for the whole world. Laponia covers a surface of 9,400 km² and consists mainly of two kinds of landscapes. To the east there is a flat area with enormous forests and marshes while the western area is a mountain area which consists of a variety of natural environments.
Area
9 400 km². It is 200 km from Laponia´s westernmost border on the barren mountain to the eastern border with coniferous forests and bogs. Between these two are a number of different types of natural environments.
Location
The Laponia World Heritage Area is located within the districts of Jokkmokk and Gällivare.
Extension
Laponia includes the following Saami villages (economic associations and geographical areas where reindeer husbandry takes place): Báste (Mellanbyn), Sörkaitum, Sirkas, Jåhkågasska, Tuorpon, Luokta-Mavas and the Gällivare forest Sami village. Reindeer husbandry takes place throughout this region.
National parks: Stora Sjöfallet, Padjelanta, Sarek and Muddus.
Nature reserves: Sjaunja and Stubba.
Other areas: the delta of Rapa valley, Tjuoldavágge (Tjuolta valley) and Sulidälbmá (Sulitelma).
The area includes two internationally important wetlands: the Sjaunja marshes and the Rapa delta.
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