Iceland

Iceland

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At-A-Glance

  • Region/Country: Scandinavia
  • Active Since: 2021
  • Trees planted: 13,300 trees
  • 2021 planting season: 490,000 tree
  • Scale up potential: 3 million trees

 

Impact Highlights

  • Repairing some of the worst deforestation globally
  • Regenerating local ecology and creating recreational lasting forests

Why plant here?

Iceland is a large area of land, 103,000 square km, with a small population of 360,000 people. Since the arrival of the Vikings, Iceland has fallen victim to some of the worst deforestation globally. What was a thriving green country with roughly 40% tree cover now has only 1%, and is world famous for its dramatic volcanic landscapes. The land in Iceland is severely degraded from relentless agriculture and the volcanic soil, meaning that it is not an easy task to reforest the area.

In 2016 Iceland set the goal of 12% forest cover by the year 2100, aiming to reforest 1.3million hectares in 80 years. It is an exciting area that needs a lot of research into the resilient trees that can survive and thrive there. We have entered into a partnership agreement with the Icelandic Forest service for the afforestation of 500 hectares of degraded land over the next two years. 

Where Will We Plant?

The reforestation projects in Iceland will take place in three areas, Sandártunga in Þjórsárdalur and areas above the existing forests in Haukadalur in Biskupstungur South-Iceland and in Stálpastaðir in Skorradalur West-Iceland. These areas of degraded land have now been taken over by the Icelandic Forest Service. Lupine has been planted in these regions to help rehabilitate the soil mostly in the last twenty years. Planting trees is the next step to build healthy and long lasting forests.

Other Benefits

In addition to soil protection and forest ecosystem restoration, the projects will sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. We estimate that 475,000 tonnes of CO2 will be sequestered over the next 50 years. All three project areas are within the national forests and will as such be open to the public for outdoor recreation.