World Heritage Identification Number: 774
World Heritage since: 1996
Category: Mixed Cultural Heritage and Natural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇸🇪 Sweden
Continent: Europe
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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Laponian Area: A Cultural and Natural Legacy of the Saami People
The Laponian Area, officially recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, is a vast and pristine wilderness located in the northernmost regions of Sweden. This expansive territory, spanning across Gällivare Municipality, Arjeplog Municipality, and Jokkmokk Municipality, bears the Latin name for Lapland – a testament to its historical significance.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
The Arctic Circle region of northern Sweden is the home of the Saami people. It is the largest area in the world (and one of the last) with an ancestral way of life based on the seasonal movement of livestock. Every summer, the Saami lead their huge herds of reindeer towards the mountains through a natural landscape hitherto preserved, but now threatened by the advent of motor vehicles. Historical and ongoing geological processes can be seen in the glacial moraines and changing water courses.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
The Committee decided to inscribe the nominated property on the basis of natural criteria (vii), (viii) and (ix) and cultural criteria (iii) and (v). The Committee considered that the site is of outstanding universal value as it contains examples of ongoing geological, biological and ecological processes, a great variety of natural phenomena of exceptional beauty and significant biological diversity including a population of brown bear and alpine flora. It was noted that the site meets all conditions of integrity. The site has been occupied continuously by the Saami people since prehistoric times, is one of the last and unquestionably largest and best preserved examples of an area of transhumance, involving summer grazing by large reindeer herds, a practice that was widespread at one time and which dates back to an early stage in human economic and social development.
Encyclopedia Record: Laponia
Laponia, or the Laponian Area, is a large mountainous wildlife area in the Lapland province in northern Sweden, more precisely in Gällivare Municipality, Arjeplog Municipality and Jokkmokk Municipality. The name comes from the Latin name for Lapland.Additional Site Details
Area: 940,900 hectares
(v) — Outstanding example of traditional human settlement
(vii) — Contains superlative natural phenomena or beauty
(viii) — Outstanding example representing major earth stages
(ix) — Outstanding example representing ecological and biological processes
Coordinates: 67.33333 , 17.58333
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© Photographer: Mg-k., CC BY-SA 3.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
