National Parks in Collaboration from Oulanka to Paanajärvi
Collaboration between the national parks of Oulanka and Paanajärvi is based on a treaty between the Finnish and the Russian governments signed on January 20th 1992, and on a protocol between the Republic of Karelia and the Administrative Board of the Province of Oulu in Finland, signed May 20th 1992. A comprehensive agreement of collaboration between the two parks was made on February 15th 1994. According to this agreement, one of the tasks for the representatives of the parks is to collaborate in entering the parks to the UNESCO World Heritage List as one entity.
The Ostrobothnia Natural Heritage Services of Metsähallitus launched the project called ‘National parks in collaboration from Oulanka to Paanajärvi’ in February 1997. The project is funded by the Interreg II Karelia Programme. The length of the Oulanka-Paanajärvi project is two years, lasting until the end of 1998.
The Main Goals of the Project:
- Making an internationally known protected area of the Oulanka-Paanajärvi national park entity and entering the parks into the UNESCO World Heritage List as an integrated whole.
- Deepening the collaboration of research and development between the parks, and developing the service structure of the area.
- Updating the levels of brochures, exhibitions, and guidance in the parks onto a standard corresponding to the general atmosphere which is becoming more and more internationalised.
- Training the park personnel into a group of people with good knowledge of different languages and a service-oriented attitude.
The specified fields of the Interreg project are the following:
- collection of data in view of biology and cultural history
- production of material including a brochure, a book etc. in different languages (Finnish, Russian, English)
- Oulanka-Paanajärvi slide multivision show
- film about Oulanka-Paanajärvi
- photo exhibition of Paanajärvi
- exhibition of Oulanka-Paanajärvi in the Customer Service Point Karhuntassu
- scale model of Paanajärvi in view of cultural history
- education trips to Paanajärvi for the personnel of Metsähallitus
- courses in the Russian language for the staff of Metsähallitus
A photo exhibition of the biggest areas of the project has already been made, presenting the four seasons in Paanajärvi National Park. The photographs were taken by the nature photographer Timo Määttä from Kuusamo.
A film about the nature as well as the cultural history of the national parks of Oulanka and Paanajärvi was finished at the turn of last year, with a premiere on February 19th 1998 in the visitor centre of Oulanka. The film was made by the following crew: Seppo Heikkilä, Ilkka Jaakkola, and Leo Koutaniemi.
One of the greatest events for the project was the opening of the Oulanka-Paanajärvi exhibition, in Custome Service Point Karhuntassu. In Custome Service Point was a whole section on Paanajärvi as well as a three-metre long scale model of the cultural history of Paanajärvi, presenting the situation in the area before the year 1939, when almost a thousand Finnish people lived in the area.
The multivision show was published in autumn 1998. The multivision was prepared by two top Finnish nature photographers, Hannu Hautala and Lassi Rautiainen.