ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the interplay between protected areas and regional development, using the Urho Kekkonen (UK) National Park as a case-study area. The UK National Park was established to protect forest, mire and fell habitats in forested parts of Finnish Lapland and to preserve the preconditions necessary for practicing reindeer herding and for traditional hiking activities in a wilderness environment. In the case of the UK National Park tourism offered a basis for arguments which would have been difficult to formulate on nature protection grounds alone, providing an opportunity to point to the economic benefits of protection in the form of jobs and incomes. Nevertheless, nature protection together with increasing tourism has not completely replaced the traditional meaning structures, uses and values of the park or of northern nature in general. In this respect natural environments such as national parks and peripheral communities that rely on local uses and meanings of natural resources are in a critical position.
