Tourism's impact on a fragile land

Once upon a time, Lapland was a word that conjured up the home of Santa Claus in the imagination of children, but increasingly it has become a tourist destination. Last year, more than 700,000 people visited the region, with 100,000 of them coming from Britain. That number is up 160% compared with 30 years ago.

- Pamela Duncan

Soaring tourism is making a substantial impact on Lapland's environment. Analysis shows that around tourist hotspots in Finnish Lapland, green areas equivalent in size to London's Hyde Park were developed in the five years to 2023.

The developments include holiday homes, ski slopes and a virtual reality experience to give tourists who missed the aurora borealis a chance to view the light show.

The extent of the development was uncovered as part of the Green to Grey cross-border project - with the Guardian, Arena for Journalism in Europe, Le Monde, the Finnish journalism platform Long Play and eight news outlets across Europe.

While some expansions are larger in scale, many consist of one or two holiday homes. But all are leaving their mark on the region's pristine landscapes.

Lapland, Finland's largest and northernmost region, became known as the home of Santa Claus in the 1920s, and in the 90s its capital, Rovaniemi, (population 65,000) proclaimed itself Santa's home city.