‣Similar to Aysén land and nature degradation issues: clearing fires, loss of forest cover, sheep and cattle, acute soil loss (in some areas from 5 to 8 m of soil cover were blown off).
‣At present - serious problems with increasing tourism and its new forms, high stress on natural sites: enormous increase in inbound tourism; large areas of severely degraded land; most popular tourist sites - under great stress; path erosion; offroad driving; new forms like motorbikes on glaciers, “bad weather tourism”, “last chance tourism”; harassment of marine wildlife by whale watching; glaciers tourism = destruction of glaciers; increasing contribution to climate change by transport, etc.. Main attraction: nature. Main cause of explosion : easy access.
‣Invasives: a lot of lupins (introduced in 1946), like in Aysén.
‣Wetlands: draining was subsidized in the 1970s-1980s.
‣Several large reforestation with native trees and soil restoration programmes initiated on national level, mainly by the Soil Conservation Service, including sheep management and land conservation courses.
‣United Nations University Land Restoration programme is located in Iceland.
‣Largest Icelandic NGO Landvernd is working on impact of tourism on Icelandic nature and on ecological restoration.
‣Response of the Arctic Council to the tourism issues in the North of Europe: the ASCENT Programme.
Vikings Razed the Forests. Can Iceland Regrow Them? .pdf
Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Base.pdf
Iceland: Colonization of woodland species during restoration.pdf
One-man reforestation project to restore pre-settlement woodland
Iceland is fed up of disrespectful Instagrammers ruining nature
Iceland
01.2018 - July 2019