Socio-Geographic Problems and Differences in Northern Fennoscandia

SOCIO-GEOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS AND DIFFERENCES IN NORTHERN FENNOSCANDIA

ERIK BYLUND Ph. D., prof. Department of Geography, Umca university, Umea, Sweden.

In my short survey here today I will, as a geographer, deal with problems con­ cerning the regional differences between the Fennoscandic northern areas and give some basic explanations to these differences and to the social and economic situations and problems in these areas. · When talking about social and economic differences and problems in Northern Scandinavia you have first to take into account the climatic conditions; se­ condly I think you must deal with the distance factor and talk about what is called the »relative location» or »position in the geographic field». The most typical climatic feature of northwestern Europe is its maritimity; this is especially characteristic of the Atlantic coastal regions, where the ampli­ tude between the mean temperature of the coldest and warmest months is rather small. The smallest amplitude is found on the whole long Norwegian coast to the Kola peninsula in northwestern Soviet Union, where it is 10-14 °C only. (It is worthwhile noticing that the maritime quality goes so far to the east along the northern coast.) The greatest amplitude on the other hand you find in the interior of northern Sweden, where the maximum figure is 29°C. The Scandinavian mountain range forms a very effective barrier against the influence of the Atlantic, and marked continentality is therefore found in central and northern Sweden and in northern Finland in the lee of the mountains. A very important thing to notice is that the variation in amplitude is mainly latitudional and is less affected by longitudional influences. So especially in the north we have very great climatic contrasts on the same latitude. This state of things as to the regional differences in temperature is of course repeated in other climatic factors. One example is the length of the vegetation period which starts - and this means that the daily mean temperature is at least + 3 ° Celsius - around the Arctic Circle as early as the beginning of April in western Norway but not until about the 20th of May in the interior of northern Sweden and Finland. On the Atlantic coast the season lasts until November but in the northern parts of Sweden and Finland it lasts for only four months; that is till the end of September. The start and the end of the snow period in the northernmost regions are closely attached to the duration of the vegetation period. The greatest dif­ ference is in the autumn when the cover of snow appears as late as about a month after the growing season has stopped. Rainfall is closely related to the atmospheric circulation, to the height above

22 sea level, and to the distance from the sea. This means that the highest annual precip~tation i:s found in the mountain airca south of Bodo in Norway, close to the Arctic Circle, where it amounts to 4.000 millimeters. The driest region is found in the interior of northernmost Sweden with 250 to 400 millimeters only. The distribution of sunshine hours has of course very much the inverse pattern to that of precipitation, provided that due allowance is made for the bright summer nights in the northern parts of the Scandinavian peninsula and Finland. The areas of maximum duration, with more than 2.100 sunshine hours per year, are found on the coast of northern Sweden along the Bothnian bay, and in northern Finland. The sun-richest town in Fen:-imc:mdia during this part of the year, June and July, is Lulea. - It is worth cmp'.1:::s:zing th:it the radiation energy received during the long, bright summer nicht.:. is of fundamental im­ portance in these areas. Here I leave the physico geographical basis and turn to what I mentioned about the distance factor and the »relative location» or »position». A great many investigations have proved that the distance between people exerts a great influence upon the creation and the efficient function of societies and economies. In this context I would like to stress only very briefly the important fact that the northern regions in these countries concerned have a peripheral location in relation to the central decision centers at the national level. This has had the implication that innovations, especially economically important ones, have reached these northern regions in their final phase. This situation explains to a great extent why these areas even today are »lagging regions,.. One can also point at the .. colonial view» that the central decision makers have had, and still have to some extent, on the northern parts of these countries. This has been expressed in an attitude to consider these areas until present time as raw-material producers only and not so much objects for final demand invest­ ments. An outstanding example of the way that the northern regions could be sub­ ordinately tied to the decision-making in the capital and thus be dominated by it is the so called Bothnian Trade Restraint, which was in effect until 1765 and made all foreign trade from Northern Sweden and Finland pass via Stock­ holm. This is a historic factor, the influence of which however can be traced at least in Northern Sweden up to these days and can explain the absence of an undisputed regional centre in Norrland to be comp::ired with Malmo and Goteborg in southern Sweden. Such a centre has never had the chance to set roots in northern Sweden. However, the distance to the capitals is far from being the decisive factor of location in this conneciton. There is good ground to point at the importance that the relative location or position within the national framework has on the economic development, particularly if the northern parts of the different

23 countries are compared with each other. In this respect »relative loc:ition» might be transformed into· »relative value», which certainly can vary. For Fin:and its northern regions have a relatively higher value than northern Sweden has for Sweden because Finland - like Norway - does not possess land south of the sixtieth parallel, where the population and economic centre in Sweden is located. The position of northern Finland in relation to the capital region of the country is thus much better than the corresponding part of northern Sweden. So, it is natural to go to the north when leaving the Finnish capital - in Sweden one has the alternative to go to the south of the country when leaving StocR.holrn. This relatively higher value attached to the northern regions in Norway and Finland compared with northern Sweden (-"this is seen in a national context - ) explains why many not so good resources in Finland and Norway are utilized more in the north than better resources in northern Sweden. This is first and foremost true about the use of possibilities to start processing industries and the running of farming in the distant north. It seems to me that Norway is the country which has attached the greatest importance to its northernmost regions. This is not only because of a good position, which I have just mentioned, and consequently a high relative value. Another reason is the specific prerequisites for remunerative fishing in northern Norway. Through the ages fishing has been the main source of livelihood in the coastal areas in Norway and it does not become less profitable the further north one goes sooner the opposite. There have existed more favourable conditions for human habitation in northernmost Norway than in northern Finland and Sweden ever since man settled down here after the ice age. It is even pmsible that people, subsisting on fishing, lived in northern Norway between Trornso and Nord~:ip/Honningsvag and in the Varanger area as early as the ice age, that is during the melting away of the ice. As land was free from ice earlier in the furthest north than down south - where the layer of ice was thicker - a chance was given to seafaring fishermen to land in the very n:ffth and t'.> ~et:lc down. In northern Sweden and northern Finland there is no correspondence to the North-norwegian fishing activity as being the economic backbone. In those countries agriculture and cattle-raising have been the main activities and have formed the development of settlement and population till the last part of the 19th century, when forestry appeared as an important type of livelihood. How­ ever, agriculture in the north has suffered because of climatic reasons from considerably worse condi1:ions for production than agriculture further south - quite the opposite to Norwegian fishing. These days even forestry has found better production conditions in the south. For many hi~toric reasons forestry and forestry bases processing firms in Sweden - hardly not so in Finland - come to hold a stronger initial position in the north with considerable industrial activity, which, however, was centered in the Sundsvall region, south of the

24 two northernmost provinces. Now we have a situation in which the southern parts of Sweden are overtaking the northern provinces because of better con­ ditions of growth for the trees. Not even mining in the north of Sweden has been able to attract people and industrial activity to such an extent that the region does not appear too sparsely populated, having too few agglomerations with good infrastructure and too incomplete cultural amenities. The population density is very low, too low to form a sufficient basis for efficiently attractive social activities. Furthermore, the too thinly spaced agglomerations and the bad industrial structure, com­ pared with central Sweden, whose economic activity has always been attracting people from the north and is doing so today, more than ever is the significance of a too weak competing power of the northern region; and I am afraid that it is likely to have weakened during the last two decades. The present development in the northern parts of the three countries is characterized by harder and harder operational and structural rationalization in the so called traditional sectors of the economy. Behind this process are economic reasons, for instance competitive reasons - this applies both to the domestic and the international markets - and as a consequence of people's demand for better standards of living. The increased industrial efficiency causes a surplus of labour, which cannot be absorbed to a sufficient extent by new undertakings. The surplus finds its way to areas which are short of labour, in other words the southern parts of the countries and especially the regions around the capitals. Net-migration losses are very considerable. The really serious aspect of this migration is that it is the young people and the people in their productive age, who move away. This selective precess is most crucial: Old people are left behind - in some Swedish small communities a fourth of the population is already older than 65 years; difficulties to supply old people wit:h good service are increasing, especially as their limited purchasing power is becoming less and less, which reduces the possibilities for the service enterprises, already suffering from the out-migration. There is no doubt that in the near future the problems for the sparsely populated areas will be the problem of social care for the old people. The situation is a paradox: We have too many people. (In our modern society the old traditional sectors of the economy cannot support all the people in the north.) We have too few people. The number of people is too limited to create a sufficient basis for a service and industry environment of good quality. Let me finish by pointing at a certain pecularit:y of the Swedish, and probably even the Finnish, colonization of the northern interior, a thing which might be of interest to medical people. During the first: 150 years of the colonization process - from 1750 to about 1900 - the colonization was carried out by decendents to a very limited number of pioneers. During t:he most energetic phase of the colonization, 1800 to 1850, there was only slight in-migrat:ion to the

25 Swedish lapp territories in northern Sweden from the coast or other parts of the country. Development took place in the form of internal »family colonization,. in which sons of earlier settlers built new farm-steads. It is true that migration within the region was considerable but the marriage market was limited. The effect can be seen in, for example, the settlement of the community of Arjeplog in the interior of Norrbotten county. At about 1870 the community had some hundred villages, which to 80 per cent could be traced back to only 6 ancestors during the course of only 4 generations. By that time almost all were related to one another. My very final words will touch upon an interesting phenomenon related to the northern bordering areas between Sweden and Finland, in the Torrie valley. This was earlier a culturally and economically homogenous region but was cut in two halves through the establishment of the boundary between Sweden and Russia in 1810~ For a long time this meant very little for the people in the area; contacts across the river were maintained. Despite the border which certainly was a barrier for communication, the Torne valley kept for a long time its character of entity. One is inclined to believe that improved techniques of communication would have even increased the contact frequency across the border. However, this has not been the case. It is simply through the improved communication facilities - first of all the use of cars - at each side of the border region has turned more and more towards its respective nation. The differences as to economic standards between the two regions tended to increase up till the 1960-ies. On both sides of the border one was more and more integrated with one's own national territory. One turned one's back to one another. Investigation of the changes of various kinds of contact field proved this statement. Earlier the Swedish boy at Overtornea took his boat across the river to the Finnish side to meet a girl - now he takes his car and goes to Lulea to dance and make his contacts. I believe that the time now has come when people in the northern regions should turn their faces to each other again. It is only through planning and hard effort in common, that the problems in the northern regions can be mastered in the future.

26