Patvinsuo

Patvinsuo National Park was established in 1982 in the North Karelia region, in the municipalities of Lieksa and Ilomantsi, and covers 105 km² with some eighty kilometres of waymarked trails. It is one of Finland's least visited parks, with fewer than twenty thousand visitors a year, which reinforces its character as a quiet place.

It protects one of the great peatland complexes of eastern Finland, a mosaic of aapa mires, shallow lakes, islands of pine forest and dark-water streams. Boardwalks are the only way to cross much of the terrain, and the observation towers look out over the open expanse of the mire, a landscape very different from the closed forest that dominates the rest of Finland.

That open, wet environment supports a remarkable wetland birdlife, with whooper swan, cranes, waders and breeding waterfowl, and the park is known for its brown bears, favoured by the proximity of the Russian border and the continuity of forest to the east. There are also beaver, elk and a community of forest birds tied to the old-growth stands. Together with neighbouring Petkeljärvi National Park, Patvinsuo forms part of the North Karelian Biosphere Reserve.