Some 70 % of the land area is productive forest, making Finland the most densely forested country in Europe. The proportion of mires is higher than anywhere else in the world. If poor-growth forest is included, wetlands represent almost one third of Finland s territory.
Finland s fauna is similar to that of Scandinavia and northern Russia, consisting mostly of species typical of the boreal coniferous zone, such as the brown bear, the national animal. In addition, arctic species are found in the north and south. The fauna have arrived so recently that few species are endemic, a rare exception being the ringed seal of Saimaa, a protected species that is a relict from the post-glacial era.
3.2 Climate
The Finnish climate is a great deal milder than micght be expected given the northen location of the location of the country. The Baltic Sea, the inland waters and, above all, the westerly winds bringing in Atlantic air warmed by the Gulf Stream, moderates the cold. The mean temperature in Finland is between 6 and 10 degrees higher than elsewhere in the world at similar latitudes.
The winters are relatively humid and cold. The occasional continental fronts that push in from the east causing severe frosts in the winter and heat waves in the summer. During the coldest winters the temperature in the north may fall to 40 or even 50 degrees, whereas readings of up to 35 degrees have been recorded during the brief summer. Many visitors find the sharp seasonal shifts hard to get used to.
Winter is the longest season in Finland. I northernmost Lapland, the polar night, or kaamos, lasts 52 days, while the southern parts of the country have just six hours of daylight in the darkest midwinter period. The light of summer makes up for the winter darkness. On the south coast, the sun is up for almost 19 hours at midsummer. In Nuorgam in the far north, the sun does not set for 67 days. Although rain or snow falls throughout the year, overall precipitation is not evenly divided. The early summer tends to be too dry for the farmers liking, especially in the south-west and along the Ostrobothian coast, whereas rainfall is often excessive at the end of the growing season (the period during which the average temperature exceeds 5 degrees). This season lasts about two months longer in the south than in the north, although the difference is offset somewhat by the fact that Lapland s midnight sun provides plants with a larger dose of light during the summer.
3.3 Important cities
Finland is a very sparse populated country. Almost half of the five million people live in the major cities of Finland. This is a still growing trend, more and more people want to live in the cities.
The capital of Finland is Helsinki, a city with about 500.000 inhabitants.
It s the northernmost capital of Europe, but by far not the one with the most inhabitants. It s the centre of cultural, financial and economic activity. It has great parks and waterways, many open-air cafes and a busy marketplace. All this together make it a great city to visit for tourists in summer. The city doesn t have any high buildings like many other capitals do. On the area of art is Helsinki also a leading city. It has many art museums including one which contains Finnish and international art from the 19th century.
In the middle of Helsinki lies a big island which is ideal for daytrips. People can have a picknick here, and by the end of the day they return by one of the many ferry s riding between the island and the continent.
Another big city is Turku. This was Finland s first capital and the oldest city. It has been tortured by big fires many times throughout time . In 1812 the capital moved from Turku to Helsinki which was a big financial blow.
The city is covered with modern buildings covering the older wooden ones. Nowadays many artists live in these premises.
Another major city of Finland is +land. It s been build on about 6400 small islands making it an interesting place for adventurous people. Several dialects of Swedish are spoken and few people in this city speak Finnish. This city is a very attractive place for people who love to make bicycle tours or to learn the folk dancing of Finland. The most interesting municipality is Sund, at the eastern end of the main island, where you’ll find the impressive Kastelholm Castle. Of strategic importance during the 16th and 17th centuries, its exact age is not known, but it was mentioned in writings as early as 1388.
Chapter 4
Population
4.1 Population division
The Finns forefathers first came to the shores of Finland some time between 9000 and 8000 B.C.. They found a barren coastline, laid waste by the retreating continental ice shelf. The settlers arrived from at least two different directions, east and south. Finland has remained settled ever since that time. Over the centuries, new waves of settlers arrived from different directions, but they were all assimilated into the earlier population.
The population growth picked up somewhat on the 1980s, as many emigrants returned and the birth rate increased. The five-million mark was reached in 1991, and by spring 1999 Finland had a population of 5.159.646. Demographically, the country is characterised by a high proportion of working-age people and a streadily acing population. Children from 0 to 14 account for less than one fifth of the population, while the proportion of senior citizens over 65s is now over 16%. Over two thirds of the Finns are in the working-age category 15 to 64.
Over 51% of the country s population are women. This is primarily due to a higher mortality rate among men, more boys are born than girls. Women account for more than two thirds of the senior citizens category.
The Finns population is unusually homogeneous, as the only indigenous ethnic minorities are the Sami of Lapland and the Romany. The majority of the former (a group of from 3000 to 6000 people, depending on the criteria applied)live in the Sami home region in the northernmost municipalities of Lapland, while the 9000-strong Romany population are more evenly distributed throughout the country.
The proportion of foreigners is among the lowest in Europe. At the end of 1998, bare 85.060 foreign citizens were living in Finland. The number of immigrants from the Soviet Union has grown rapidly in recent years. The country has received only a limited number of refugees, some 15.500 in all. In 1997, 973 persons applied for asylum in Finland.
4.2 Languages
The official Languages are Finnish and Swedish. Finnish is a language that is belonging to the Finno-Ugric family, holds an uncontested dominant position, being the mother tongue of over 93% of the population. Fewer than 6% of the Finns speak Swedish as their mother tongue, the most of them live on the south or west coast or in the Aland Islands.
Finnish is a very distinctive language and the only non-Indo-European language of the European Union. It is characterised by fine shades of meaning sometimes hard to pin down precisely, and an affinity for natural sounds. Perhaps because of this different quality of the language, no satisfactory translation has ever been produced of the greatest and the most Finnish of all Finnish novels.
4.3 Religion and Finland
The Catholic Church extended sins the 12 century, when the Swedish conquered western Finland, Christianising it in the process. Meanwhile, the Principality of Novgorod was busy propagating the Orthodox creed in Karelia and eastern Finland. The Lutheran doctrine of Reformation took over from the Catholic Church during the 16 century, since which Finland and the other Nordic countries has been the foremost stronghold of Lutheranism in the world.
In principle, the Finnish State is neutral in religious matters, but the Evangelical-Lutheran Church is mentioned in the Constitution Act, and its administration and activities, as well as those of the Finnish Orthodox Church, are regulated by the Church Act, issued by Parliament.
The role of the Lutherean Church as the principal national church is shown by the fact that the Evangelical-Lutheran congrations had 4.400.00 members in 1997, or 85,6% of the population.
Finland s second largest religious community is the Orthodox Church, which has 54.000 members, or 1,1% of the population.
The Pentecostal revival movement numbers some 50.000 baptised members plus a considerable number of their children. Jehovah s Witnesses have 17.000 members in Finland, the Free Church of Finland has 13.000 the Catholic Church 6.000 and the Jewish congrations 1.100 members.
Chapter 5
The Politics
The historical foundation of Finland was the Scandinavian yeoman farmer s society. It is the only republic to have developed on this basis; and yet the Finnish President has a far greater political role than the monarchs of the other Scandinavian countries.
The Republic of Finland is a parliamentary democracy headed by a president as chief of state. The current Finnish constitution was first adopted in 1919. In recent years it has been amended several times.
The President is Head of State and has considerable powers. The President appoints the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. He also has the right to initiate and veto legislation. The President is elected for a six-year term by popular vote (max. two consecutive terms). If no candidate gets an absolute majority of the votes cast, a second round is held between the two candidates with the most votes in the first round. The current President is Tarja Halonen of the SDP (since March 2000).
Legislative power is shared by the president and the one-chamber parliament of 200 members.
The government which is headed by a prime minister, is responsible for the country’s general administration.
The executive power is vested in the Council of State. This Government consists of the Prime Minister and between 13-17 Ministers.
Current Prime Minister is Paavo Lipponen (SDP) (since April 1995). On 21 March 1999, new elections led to a considerable defeat for the SDP, which nevertheless continues to be the biggest party and is thus set to form the new government in a coalition with other parties.
5.1 The political parties
The Centre was called The Agrarian League until 1965 and it still derives its main support from rural areas covering most of Finland. Not nearly all the voters have anything to do with farming, but loyalty to the Centre is almost a family value in the provinces, particularly the two northern ones (Oulu and Lapland). The higher voting percentage of the rural areas is an additional asset. The party has a strong anti-EU wing. Famous representatives for the Centre have been the late President Urho Kekkonen, the former Prime Minister Eske Aho, and the former minister for foreign affairs Paavo V yrynen.
The Social Democrats (SDP)
They are strongest in the Southern industrial towns, also sharing much of the middle-class and public employee vote. President Martti Ahtisaari, EU commissioner Erkki Liikanen, former Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa, and the current (1995-) Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen might be heard of also outside of Finland.
The National Coalition (Conservatives)
Presents itself as the party of entrepreneurs and patriots, winning 90 per cent shares of vote in army bases. Helsinki and the other main cities are National Coalition strongholds. While most of rural Finland is dominated by the green of the Centre, Eastern H me is blue for some reason.
The Young-Finns (neo-liberals)
Appearing as a more modern, “cool” urban alternative to the Conservative National Coalition.
The Left-wing Alliance (Communists)
This party is a 1990 attempt to gather together the quarreling Communist movement. Some splits are still visible both inside and outside of the party. Much stron