Norway's Svalbard archipelago, a true 'land of the midnight sun,' is facing big choices as climate change—running three times faster in the Arctic than elsewhere—makes it both more accessible and more fragile.
Svalbard, outlined in red above, is one of the farthest-north inhabited places on earth. Greenland is at left, and Scandinavia below it.
Svalbard was important for whalers in the 17th and 18th century, and for coal-mining and other mineral extraction in the 20th. But little mining takes place now as the world abandons coal; even Svalbard is planning to end its own use of coal for power.
Tourism and Arctic research are now the main supports of its small economy, including the Global Seed Vault, which stores samples of seeds from domestic and wild plants from around the world; the frozen vault is seen as a backup for biodiversity, although warming climate conditions may call for new measures.
In the meantime, Svalbard's seven national parks and many bird sanctuaries are drawing visitors—about 140,000 a year, compared to a population of about 3,000. About 65% of the land area is protected by reserves and rules, but the increasing numbers coming to areas that formerly were not navigable, has the potential for accelerating damage.
Local officials are wrestling with ideas for how to create sustainable tourism that will sustain the economy without destroying the environment. The head of the Visit Svalbard tourism authority says “It’s always hard to defend because we know that tourism worldwide creates challenges to all the places people visit, but also in the bigger climate change perspective. But we can’t stop people from travelling. We can’t stop people from visiting each other, so we have to find solutions."
Comments (0)