%0 Research Notes
%T The cultivated peatland area of Finland
%A Erviö, Raimo
%D 1982
%J Suo - Mires and peat
%V 33
%N 3
%U http://suo.fi/article/9556
%X It has been generally stated that the area of peat soils in Finnish cultivated land is (0.7 mill. hectares (Kivinen 1980). With a total cultivated land area in Finland of 2.56 mill. hectares at present, the peat area referred to is 27 per cent of this. 
The 0.7 mill. hectares also includes other organic soil types such as gyttja, lake mud and mould soil (Pessi 1966), which according definition have less than 40 per cent organic matter (23.3 % org. C). Though all the organic soil types should be considered, this 0.7 mill. hectares' area would be too large according to present data.
Of the area covered by agrogeological maps made by Institute of Soil Science, peat fields commonly have on average 9.4 per cent of the cultivated land area (Table 1). That mapped area covers about 23 % of the Finnish field area. Most of peat land is situated in Lappland, North Ostrobothnia and Kainuu. If the area of peat in northern areas is estimated to be 25 % then the area of peat soil stands at 0.26 mill. hectares. If the proportion of peatlands in southern Finland is estimated to be as high as 15 %, the total peat area could be about 0.42 mill. hectares; this represents the highest possible estimate.