09.01.2019
“There are exciting times ahead,” says forestry chief Þröstur Eysteinsson. Photo: Pétur Halldórsson
“There are exciting times ahead,” says forestry chief Þröstur Eysteinsson. Photo: Pétur Halldórsson
Icelandic Broadcasting Service RUV news 9 Jan. 2019:

Forestation activity in Iceland will take a leap this year and it is anticipated close to four million new trees will be planted; which is a million more than last year. Birch, larch, Alaska aspen, lodgepole pine, and Sitka spruce are the trees to be planted in the greatest numbers.

“There are exciting times ahead,” says forestry chief Þröstur Eysteinsson. “It was decided in the summer that forestry would be a major part of Iceland’s climate change mitigation and that we have to plant many more trees in the coming years than we have been doing. It’s a slow-starter but we expect to get close to four million plants in total and then expand from there. Increased direct project funding to forestry is not 100% settled but will cover quite a few tens of millions of krónur. It is hoped it will be counted in the hundreds of millions from 2020.” 

The government’s five-year finance plan earmarks 6.8 billion krónur for climate projects. The majority, four billion, will go to carbon fixing through forestry and land management. Increased funding to the forestry service and the soil conservation service is expected to be 450 million krónur in 2020 and up to 1.7 billion krónur by 2023. This year will see extensive tree planting on land owned by farmers and by the forestry service itself — especially in Skorradalur, West Iceland. 

“Then there are some really cool, big projects getting under way. They are getting started at Hafnarsandur near Þorlákshöfn, the so-called Þorláksskógur forest. It’s going to start in style there, and also at Hólasandur,” Þröstur enthuses.

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