Faroe Islands: New Conservation Law

There is an increasingly different understanding of the status of the environment and what actions that need to be undertaken between landowners and government agencies in the Faroe Islands. A new nature conservation law (Náttúruverndarlógin) provides a framework for improving conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. International experience suggests that systematic involvement of landowners in monitoring coastal resources can effectively promote dialogue between landowners and government agencies and strengthen the management of the coastal resources.

A new project “Community-Based Monitoring and Management of Living Resources in the Faroe Islands” has been funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Working Group for Biodiversity. The project aims to share ‘good practice’ methods for involving resource users in monitoring and managing coastal resources such as seabirds, for instance through co-created citizen science. The project also aims to contribute to give landowners and hunters a 'voice' in the implementation of the new law by co-developing a roadmap for testing collaborative management of coastal resources, based on experiences from other parts of the Arctic.

 View towards the East from the westernmost point of the country (Photo by Finn Danielsen)

The project has been initiated by the University of the Faroe Islands, staff of Umhvørvisstovan, and Nordic Foundation for Development and Ecology (NORDECO), in close dialogue with Jagtforeningen Lonin on Sandoy. The project is co-supported by the UArctic Thematic Network on Collaborative Resource Management, and the EC through the projects European Citizen Science, FRAMEwork, and MoRe4nature.