Do you need a nature card to canoe in Dalsland–Nordmarken?
Short answer
You need the nature conservation card (naturvårdskort) if you sleep at one of the roughly 100 prepared campsites in the Dalsland–Nordmarken lake system. It costs SEK 80 per person per night, children under 12 are free, and you buy it online from DANO, at tourist offices in the area or from a canoe rental. Paddling itself needs no card.
Paddling on the lakes is free. The nature conservation card is about where you sleep: it gives you the right to use the campsites with shelters, toilets and firewood that line the canoe routes.
What the card is
The card is sold by DANO, short for Dalsland Nordmarken. DANO is a non-profit association run jointly by landowners, canoe rental businesses and local communities in the lake district on the border of Dalsland, southern Värmland and Norway. It runs about a hundred campsites along the waterways.
In Swedish the card is called naturvårdskort. In English you will see “nature conservation card” or simply “nature card”.
A typical DANO campsite has a fire pit and a dry toilet, and most have a wind shelter. Firewood is usually there, though you may have to chop and split it yourself. DANO’s own nature hosts, the DANO Crew, look after the sites by boat and check cards.
Who needs it
| Your plan | Card needed? |
|---|---|
| Day trip, back at your base at night | No |
| Overnight at a DANO campsite | Yes, per person per night |
| Child under 12 at a DANO campsite | No, free |
| Group of more than five people | Yes: groups this size must sleep at DANO campsites |
| Wild camping away from the campsites | No card, but the limits of the right of public access apply |
If you choose not to buy a card, DANO points you to allemansrätten, the Swedish right of public access, with its limits on overnight stays and on making fires. In practice the prepared sites are where you want to be: they have a toilet and a safe fire pit, and they spread paddlers out so the shores stay clean. More on this in Can you wild camp on a canoe trip in Dalsland?.
What it costs
On DANO’s site in October 2026 the card costs SEK 80 per person per night. Children under 12 use the campsites free of charge. DANO publishes no weekly or season rate.
| Trip | Adults | Nights | Card cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekend | 2 | 2 | SEK 320 |
| 5 days | 2 | 4 | SEK 640 |
| 8 days | 2 | 6 at campsites | SEK 960 |
| 8 days, family | 2 adults, 2 kids under 12 | 6 | SEK 960 |
DANO had not published a price for 2027 when we checked. Look at the shop before you go.
If the DANO Crew finds you at a campsite without a valid card, you pay the card on the spot plus an administration fee. DANO does not state the size of that fee.
Where to buy it
- Online in DANO’s web shop on dalslandnordmarken.se, before you leave home.
- At a tourist office in the area.
- At a canoe rental in Dalsland or Värmland. Ask when you pick up your canoe.
Buying online is the simplest: you know your number of nights, and you arrive with the card sorted. Unused nights are not refunded, so count honestly.
What the money pays for
DANO lists where the card income goes:
- building new campsites and maintaining the existing ones
- firewood
- supervision by the nature hosts
- waste containers
- nature conservation
- compensation to the landowners who let campsites sit on their land
Much of the shoreline is private land. The card is how the landowners, the rentals and the villages keep a hundred sites open to visitors without the shores being worn out.
What the card does not do
- It is not a booking. You cannot reserve a campsite. If you arrive and someone is already there, you share or paddle on. You may not stop another paddler from camping at “your” site.
- It does not cover fires during a fire ban. The nature hosts tell you when a ban is on. Check the county board (Länsstyrelsen) for Västra Götaland or Värmland before you light anything in a dry summer.
- It does not cover the locks. Lock passages on the Dalsland Canal are a separate ticket. See How do you canoe through the locks of the Dalsland Canal?.
If you rent a canoe or book a package
Rental bases in the area sell the card, so you can sort it out on arrival. An Outpost North canoe package includes it. So does The Canoe Trip, along with a lock pass and a trail map with the campsites marked.
Our pick for a base
We would start at Outpost North in Gustavsfors. It sits on the water between Lelång and Västra Silen, so both lakes and their DANO campsites are open to you from the camp, without a car transfer. You book a canoe package there: it starts on any day you choose, lasts 1 to 14 days and includes the nature card, canoe wheels, a route in an app and a map of the lakes. In 2027 it costs €80 to €115 per canoe per day, depending on the period.
Sources
DANO: nature conservation card, DANO: about the lake district, DANO: naturvårdskort (Swedish), Västsverige: paddling in Dalsland, Naturvårdsverket: the right of public access.
