38 FiNNISH
by NATURE By Terhi Rauhala Photo Mikko Karjalainen / Vastavalo.fi
A gem in the world’s treasury CHEST Finland has been elected as a member of the Unesco World Heritage Committee for a four-year term starting in 2014. The Committee’s main tasks are to decide which new cultural and natural properties are to be inscribed on the World Heritage List each year, and to monitor the state of all the World Heritage Sites. The list currently numbers 981 sites in 160 countries. Some 25 new sites are entered each year. One of the seven Finnish Unesco World Heritage Sites is the Kvarken Archipelago (pictured). Together with the High Coast in the neighbouring country of Sweden it forms a transboundary World Natural Heritage Site. Besides natural beauty, the Kvarken Archipelago possesses unique geological value: the rate of the land uplift* in the area is one of the highest observed worldwide. It serves as a key area for understanding the processes of land uplift caused by the melting ice sheet following the last ice age. www.kvarkenworldheritage.fi