Regulations applying to Vindelfjällen Nature Reserve

Don’t let the nature reserve regulations prevent you from enjoying Vindelfjällen. You are most welcome! Take care of yourself and the natural and cultural treasures of Vindelfjällen.

The purpose of the reserve is to conserve one of southern Lapland’s mountain regions in which almost all of the mountain habitat types are represented, and where reindeer husbandry is an integral part of the mountain ecosystem. It is intended to benefit reindeer husbandry, nature conservation and outdoor recreation.

The regulations of the nature reserve, set out in 1974, stipulate that it is forbidden to:

• Engage in forestry operations that are not permitted according to special rights associated with reindeer husbandry or mountain accomodation. The state reserves the right to allow the local inhabitants to collect wood from birch and conifers for subsistence requirements.
• Dam, drain or release sewage water.
• Erect new buildings or other structures, or alter already existing buildings.
• Construct cable-ways, roads, railways, trails, paths, boardwalks or bridges, or to erect aerial cables.
• Detonate, quarry or mine.
• Hunt wildfowl and wading birds.
• Damage solid objects or surfaces.
• Disturb wildlfe.
• Drive motor vehicles, except on stipulated roads or trails, or within special areas, with the exception of transport associated with reindeer husbandry.
• Disturb reindeer and reindeer husbandry.
• Enter Marsivagge from 15th May – 1st August

Within the old forests of Giertsbäcksdalen, Matsorliden and Kirjesålandet, regulations set out in 1988 stipulate that it is forbidden to:

• Erect new buildings or other structures.
• Build roads.
• Lay aerial or terrestrial cables.
• Quarry rock, stone, gravel, earth or peat.
• Drill, detonate, dig, mine, fill or dump.
• Drain, dam or undertake water regulation.
• Fell live or dead trees, remove windfalls or undertake any forestry operation.
• Introduce species foreign to the area.
• Drive motor vehicles on bare ground, with the exception of removing elk carcasses after hunting.
• Uuse chemical pesticides on land or in water.
• Climb nest trees or intentionally approach within 100 metres of raptors’ nests or carnivores’ dens.
• Damage the ground and vegetation, including dead trees and windfalls.

Without permission from the County Administration, it is forbidden to:

• Distribute lime on land
• Distribute lime in water

Reindeer husbandry may be undertaken without hindrance of the above regulations, with the exception of felling dead trees, in accordance with the Swedish law on reindeer husbandry.