Bio-regions of Finland

The bio-regions of Finland, sometimes referred to as natural sciences provinces, are national subdivisions defined on the basis of the municipal boundaries of 1930, which aim to divide Finland into biogeographical entities. Because the boundaries of municipalities have changed in many ways over time, the boundaries of the regions do not respect any existing administrative boundaries in many places. Traditionally, the boundaries of the bio-regions have been presented in publications on small scale maps, where the boundaries of the biota provinces have been approximated. The Species Information Centre uses material based on the survey carried out at the National Museum of Natural History on the municipal boundaries of 1930. The original biota provinces stretched east to the Arctic Ocean and in the southeast to the east of Ladoga. After the land transfers after the wars, there are 21 bio-regions in the area of today’s Finland. Each region has a Finnish and Latin name and an abbreviation in Finnish and Latin. In insect science literature, alternative names have been used from some regions of Northern Finland, which are also shown in the table below the official name.