Lemmenjoki

Lemmenjoki National Park was established in 1956 in northern Lapland, in the municipalities of Inari and Kittilä, and at some 2,850 km² it is the largest in Finland and one of the most extensive in Europe. It borders Øvre Anárjohka National Park in Norway to the west, forming a cross-border protected block of considerable size.

Its axis is the Lemmenjoki River, which runs deep in a broad valley between wooded slopes, and from which the territory opens out into a succession of fjell moorland, mires, pine and birch forest and a dense network of streams. It is an area of open country with very little infrastructure: the usual way to travel through it combines a boat trip up the river into the interior of the valley with long walks between open wilderness huts.

Lemmenjoki has a singular mining history. From the 1940s onwards the valley drew gold prospectors who panned the river sediments by hand, and active claims still remain within the park today, an uncommon case of extractive activity permitted in a protected area and the subject of a long controversy. The territory also forms part of the reindeer grazing area of the Sámi communities, who maintain their traditional rights here. The wildlife is that of the taiga and the northern tundra, with wolverine, brown bear, fox and a birdlife that includes moorland raptors.