Oulanka

Oulanka National Park was established in 1956 in north-eastern Finland, between Kuusamo and Salla, next to the Russian border. Its character is defined by its rivers: the Oulanka, the Kitkajoki and the Savinajoki descend between gorges and sand terraces forming a succession of rapids and falls, with those of Kiutaköngäs and Jyrävä among the best known.

The geology sets it apart from other Finnish parks: here calcareous and dolomitic rocks are exposed, uncommon in the country, which produce base-rich soils on which grows a flora unusually diverse for the latitude. Its emblem is the calypso orchid, Calypso bulbosa, a boreal species with a pink flower that finds in Oulanka one of its best European populations, alongside other orchids and rare calcicolous plants.

The park is the central section of the Karhunkierros, the Bear's Ring, the most popular long-distance path in Finland, some eighty kilometres crossing the park's gorges, suspension bridges and forests. Oulanka also forms a cross-border complex with Paanajärvi National Park, in the Russian Republic of Karelia, with which it has run cooperation programmes, and it holds eastern taiga wildlife such as brown bear, wolverine and dipper, which winters on the rapids that do not freeze.