Sweden's National Parks

Sweden's National Parks is a kaleidoscopic journey through the Swedish countryside, with all its beauty and variation - from delicate wooded meadows and moss-carpeted virgin forests to desolate mires and subarctic mountains. Published by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, its aim is to create a greater awareness of and feeling for the priceless natural heritage which the national parks of Sweden represent, and to encourage many careful visits to them. Informative texts describing the parks are combined with visual portraits of their scenery and wildlife by leading nature photographers, while writers such as Kerstin Ekman, Gunnar Brusewitz, Gerda Antti and Stefan Edman add their personal impressions of some of the areas. Among these contributions is one of the last nature essays written by the statesman and author Rolf Edberg. "Our country can boast a very wide range of valuable and attractive natural areas," writes the Director-General of the Environmental Protection Agency. "The national parks comprise the best and the most representative of them. We need them in order to conserve our ecosystems and biodiversity." In his foreword, HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, who has opened many of the country's national parks, writes: "Thanks to this form of protection, later generations will I hope also be able to enjoy our unique natural heritage. Beyond price, it belongs not only to us, but also to the future." Includes maps and gorgeous color photographs.