Stora Sjöfallet National Park

A national park in Swedish Lapland encompassing mountain landscapes around Lake Akkajaure and the Stora Sjöfallet waterfall. Its boundaries and character have been shaped by hydropower development.

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Stora Sjöfallet: A major waterfall on the Stora Lule River in Swedish Lapland. The waterfall gives the park its name, though hydropower development has greatly reduced its flow.
Porjus Hydroelectric Power Station: A hydroelectric power station on the Stora Lule River, commissioned in 1915. It began the river’s major hydropower development upstream of the park.
Royal National Parks of Sweden: The first nine national parks established in Sweden in 1909. Stora Sjöfallet was among the parks created during this early conservation initiative.
Sámi people: An Indigenous people whose traditional homeland spans northern Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula. Sámi communities have longstanding cultural and livelihood connections to the park region.
River restoration: The process of repairing ecological functions and habitats in altered rivers. Restoring more natural water flows could address some effects of hydropower regulation.
Lake Akkajaure: A large reservoir on the Stora Lule River in Norrbotten County, Sweden. The reservoir occupies a central place in the park’s altered landscape.
Suorva Dam: A dam in northern Sweden that regulates water levels in the Akkajaure reservoir. Its construction submerged land and altered the setting around Stora Sjöfallet.
Swedish Society for Nature Conservation: A Swedish environmental organization founded in 1909 to promote nature conservation. The society helped advance the conservation movement that led to Sweden’s first national parks.
Reindeer herding in Sweden: A livelihood practiced by Sámi herders across northern Sweden, based on seasonal movement of reindeer. Herding routes and grazing lands intersect with protected mountain terrain.
Environmental flows: Water flows managed to sustain river ecosystems and the people who depend on them. The waterfall’s reduced flow makes ecological water allocation a central issue.