3. Shipping access through climate change

By Pertti Yliniemi
     
      I predict that in the future, the warming climate, improved transport links, and a yearning for the clean and safe north will prove to be the salvation of Lapland.
      The most important means of livelihood will be tourism, which already sustains Lapland. After 2030, agriculture and forestry will provide income for only a few percent of the residents of Lapland.
     
The greatest change will be the opening of the Bering Strait in the Arctic Ocean due to the warming climate. A logistical connection through Russia, or Norway, or both will open up to Asia and America, whose significance for Finland and Lapland will be greater than what the Asian flights are for Finnair.
      Oil and gas pipelines, as well as railways and motorways will link the harbours of the Arctic Ocean to Europe through Lapland. The change will move part of the massive Asian ship transport northward, and will affect the traditional logistics routes and harbours.
     
The railways, roads, and housing built for the mining industry, which is now in decline, can be utilised in tourism. A train ride from Helsinki to Lapland will take four hours, and driving on a motorway will be seven hours. The airports of Tampere and Turku will be shut down.
      I would see that the increasing domestic problems and pollution of Southern Europe and the Middle East will add to the attraction of the safe Lapland. There will be direct flights from China and India as well.
     
The tourist business, environmentalists, and reindeer herders will walk hand in hand after finally finding each other. Selling landscapes and experiences does not hurt nature.
      Instead of three-star service, there will be five-star service, restricting the number of those coming. Lapland will have as many tourists as it has inhabitants - year-round. Basic services in municipalities will improve.
     
Clear-cutting and ploughing forests will end, because there will be more appreciation for nature than there is now.
      The only traditional lumberjacks will be working for the tourist industry. Urban greens who are concerned about their carbon footprint appreciate travel in their own country.
      It will finally be understood that the value of land and forest is greater for tourism than it is in forestry. In the future, Lapland will be Finland’s biggest tourist region.
     
The writer is CEO of Lapland Hotels. He lives in Muonio, where he grew up.

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