Norrbotten County has eight national parks: Peljekaise in Arjeplog Municipality, Sarek and Padjelanta in Jokkmokk Municipality, Muddus and Stora Sjöfallet, which are both situated in the two municipalities Jokkmokk and Gällivare, Vadvetjåkka and Abisko i Kiruna Municipality and Haparanda Archipelago in Haparanda Municipality. The national parks Sarek, Padjelanta, Stora Sjöfallet and Muddus together with the nature reserve Sjaunja and Stubba have been declared by the UN body UNESCO a World Heritage Site for their outstanding natural values. The area has been named Laponia.
Three of the four rivers which the Swedish parliament has declared of national interest lie in Norrbotten County: the rivers Torne, Kalix and Pite. As technology has developed, mankind has begun to influence the environment in such a way that the natural ecocycles have been disturbed. Acidification is primarily accelerated by fallout of sulphurous compounds. Carbon dioxide increases the greenhouse effect. Together with water vapour and certain other gases, carbon dioxide absorbs heat radiation. This does not prevent the heat from sunlight from reaching the earth's surface, but it does effectively prevent heat radiation from the earth from dispersing into space.