Finland

The archipelago in Vaasa and four neighbouring municipalities was given a UNESCO world nature heritage status yesterday (12.7.2006). The area was admitted on the UNESCO list together with the High coast on the Swedish side. The name for the heritage site is High Coast/Kvarken Archipelago. The thing that makes the archipelago unique in the world is the fact that it’s rising from the sea with a speed of one centimetre per year, which basically means that in about 2300 years you can walk over to Sweden. It also means that areas like Replot and Björköby in the archipelago are gaining 35 hectare of land every year. Nowhere in the world is the effect of landrising so obvious on things like geology, animal- and plantlife and culture. The Kvarken archipelago came about during the last ice age (20 000 years ago) when a three kilometre thick continental ice sheet was covering the nordic countries and pressing the crust of the earth 800-1000 metres downwards. A good place to find out more about these thing when visiting Vaasa is Terranova – Kvarken nature centre. It can be found in conjunction with the Museum of Ostrobothnia on Museokatu 3-4. (http://museo.vaasa.fi/)

There are six UNESCO cultural heritage sites in Finland from before, but this is the first nature heritage site in Finland. Today UNESCO has listed 812 sites in 137 countries. Of these 628 are cultural sites, 160 are nature sites and 24 are combined sites.

Saunas, summer cottages, nature, lakes, Helsinki, Lapland, many interesting small towns, winter, summer, snow, northern lights, Santa Claus, neverending days, neverending nights, lovely Finnish bands etc. etc. There are LOTS of reasons to visit.