Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.12.2009, Síða 40

Utter the words "Icelandic Forest" in
a crowd of Icelanders and you’re sure
to hear a chuckle, a resigned, self-
deprecating remark, or even one of the
country’s oldest jokes: "What do you do
if you get lost in an Icelandic forest?" -
"Stand up." For hundreds of years that
joke has rung true. It’s reflected a barren
and largely treeless landscape; deeper
still it’s reflected an enormous resource
management mistake and hundreds of
years of imported lumber dependence.
But all that might be in the past: thanks to
thousands of supporters and a couple of
global crises, many foresee the imminent
and glorious return of the Icelandic
forest.
HiSToRy: BlaME iT on THE
VikinGS
The hearty Norwegian Vikings that first
laid their eyes and hands on Iceland were
privy to a landscape altogether separate
from the one we know today. Back
then, an estimated 30% of the country
was covered in a verdant forest largely
composed of downy birch—or Betula
pubescens.
Icelandic settlers quickly got about
to doing what settlers all over the world
do best: plundering natural resources.
Forests were cleared and burned to
provide grazing space for recently
imported gangs of sheep, while the
gathered wood was used for fuel, building
materials and coal. Unfortunately, the
country’s loose volcanic soil minimized
the chances for any forest recovery and
once gone, the trees stayed gone. By
the middle of the last millennia many
Icelanders were forced to shift to peat—a
thick sludge of decomposed vegetative
matter—as a primary fuel source.
With reforestation as far from their
minds as cocktail drinks and bikinis,
Icelanders soon found themselves largely
dependent on imported timber. By the
1940s, when birch wood was finally
abandoned as a fuel source, the country
had lost 95% of its forest cover; which is
to say less than 1% of the island was still
covered in trees.
FoUndinG FoRESTRy
Meanwhile, a number of proto-
environmentalists were beginning to
question the country’s clear-cut policy. At
the turn of the 20th century, three Danes
lobbied the parliament to adopt a forestry
and soil conservation policy, which it did
in 1907. The government run Iceland
Forest Services (IFS) was established the
subsequent year.
In 1930, the Icelandic Forestry
Association (IFA), an umbrella
organisation for 57 local forestry
societies, was founded. Today it counts
over 7,000 members and is considered
Iceland’s most popular environmental
rights group.
By the 50s, focus had shifted from
simple preservation to afforestation
[planting in previously tree-free places]
between 1963 and 1989, the IFS and local
forestry authorities planted anywhere
from 500.000 to 1 million trees per year.
Since the 90s that number has soared to
nearly 6 million per year. While all those
trees only translate to an increase of 0.3%
in vegetative cover, the growth spawned a
most unlikely industry: Icelandic timber.
PiZZa, CHRiSTMaS and kREPPa:
a RECiPE FoR SUCCESS!
As afforestation expanded, so did
the possibility for domestic lumber
production. Icelandic timber is currently
used for everything from fence posts, to
livestock bedding, to fireplace logs. In the
11 years between 1997 and 2008, Icelandic
fuel wood sales more than tripled, from
under 100 tons to over 350, with much of
that fuel, curiously enough, headed to the
ovens of wood-fire pizzerias.
Christmas tree production is another
unlikely industry to emerge. For the
last 20 years the Icelandic Forestry
Association has been inviting families to
spend a few hours in the forest picking
out their trees, cutting them down and
dragging them home.
Of the roughly 40,000 Christmas
trees used this year in Iceland, Brynjólfur
Jónsson, the director of the Icelandic
Forestry Association, estimates 10,000
will be Icelandic. Brynjólfur assures
that the practice is entirely sustainable
and points to Hvalfjördur, where two
thousand harvested trees are replaced by
10-15.000 new ones every year. "We never
take out more than we plant."
Both of these developments indicate a
changing marketplace. Before the kreppa
struck, Icelanders bought imported wood
products freely. But as the economy
collapsed and the króna along with
it, importing wood products became
significantly more expensive and a
domestic business niche emerged. "This
is something that we thought would
be impossible for another 40-50 years,”
Brynjólfur says, speaking of Icelandic
timber production. “But now it’s real.”
oUR Good FRiEnd GloBal
WaRMinG
The IFA and the IFS may also be getting
a helping hand from another unlikely
ally: global warming. With extended
growing periods in the spring and fall,
many of the planted trees are growing
faster and larger than ever before.
Although global warming poses some
as of yet unknown dangers—among
them insects, fungus and disease—the
warmer climate coupled with the surge
in plantings have Brynjólfur believing
that the organisation’s stated goal of
reforesting 30% of the country over 1,000
years may be achieved significantly ahead
of schedule.
"It might instead take 200-300 years.
By the end of this century we might
cover 3% of Iceland ś land area. But if the
natural vegetation responds to the higher
temperature, the process will be much
quicker. Large areas on the main plateaus
will be recovered with natural birch and
willows without the work of man.”
It’s difficult to imagine the green
Iceland Brynjólfur envisions, but it’s
tempting too. If the director’s right,
Icelanders might have a chance to bury
their lamest joke once and for all.
24
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 18 — 2009
opinion | Travis Bickleopinion | Brenda M Asiimire (Momo)
Taxi Driver:
Xmas Edition!
Where Is
Iceland
Heading? Like a child of poor, alcoholic and abusive
parents, Taxi driver man fears the com-
ing holidays.
Ikea is rolling out the consum....ehhh,
Christmas Spirit early. Always first on
the scene they are. Bah, humbug! Their
decorations sting my weary eyes as I drive
past with my empty cab, as is the custom
these days. Good thing I hoarded my cash
when the giving was good. Everyone else
seems to have sold themselves down the
river... no I kid. I’m as destitute as the lot
of ya!
Still a few guilty profiteering swine
meted themselves unwarranted bonuses
this year. They climb aboard package
laden and fat like vanilla ice-cream. They
dress up all high and mighty for the
Christmas party soirée with their ginor-
mous paychecks still intact. Downsizing
is so November. Worries are so for the
start of January. Desperation is not part
of the fat cat game. Not until your own
sector is swallowed whole.
Yet the Christmas buffet scene still
throbs, festive as ever, albeit with bitter
wastrels drowning aggregate sorrow in
drink, not the cash heavy merrymakers
of yore gearing up for a gleeful holiday
season topped to the brim with culinary
delight and Christmas gifts the size of
42“ flat screen TVs. No, this year the gifts
come in the form of a pat on the back, and
if not a pink slip, merely a wish for you to
man up and take it.
In my backseat, parties turn into sob
fests. People take their Atlas-like burdens
along home to stew in like some rancid
marinade of malcontent.
“Somliga går med trasiga skor,” the
poet swore , before inquiring “Säg vad
beror det på?” A rhetorical question it
would seem, as in the following line he
indicates that it might simply be god ś
will for people to trudge towards their
end in the aforementioned “threadbare
shoes.” Perhaps he speaks the truth.
Maybe Mammon wills it so.
Bah! Humbug!
When I told my friends I was
moving to Iceland, none of
them could think of a good
reason for me to choose it over
other Europe nations. The name Iceland
sounded so far away and so cold. I was
leaving my family for a place where I
knew no one, and yet I was still excited.
It did not take me months to make up my
mind about moving to Iceland, not after
undertaking some research.
As soon as I finished my research,
I knew I had to be here. One thing was
clear to me; this place could not be com-
pared to other places. I would start my
own family without worrying about my
children’s welfare. I would get a job and
have enough to send to my people back
home, I would take midnight walks
without worrying about getting raped or
killed and, above all, I could trust all insti-
tutions since the country was corruption
free, which was not the case in Uganda.
If I were to have an opinion, I would
say that Ugandans today find it easier to
accept corruption since they cannot fight
it. The injustice is in their faces but the re-
sponsible parties are untouchable, maybe
because they have a lot of money to quiet
everyone or it is something one sees but
has no solid proof. Boy was I glad to leave.
Just like I thought, Iceland was prom-
ising, I could now make plans knowing
I had a job that I wasn’t going to lose
because my employer’s relatives needed
one, or worrying about getting paid.
I now had enough for me, and even
my family back home.
For a while everything seemed to be
going as planned. My husband and I even
bought a little apartment in Reykjavik, we
had the cars we needed and still covered
every bill. Life was exciting, and we could
not wait to see what the future had in
store for us.
Today it feels like everything I run
from has caught up with me. I have
watched us, along with others, lose our
money because of some so-called “rich
people” and it seems like no one has been
able to get them to pay for what they have
done. Not only are the majority of the
people in this nation, including me, pay-
ing our own debts that have risen beyond
what we planned but we also have to pay
for the debts caused by these selfish peo-
ple.
People are so angry that the crime
rate is increasing, meaning I cannot take
the midnight walks I used to enjoy. As it
turns out, my 10-month-old son might
also have to pay these debts at an older
age. Ever day I pray I don’t lose my job,
but my husband already lost his.
I can’t help wondering where this na-
tion is headed, hopefully not down the
same road my country took, making it
close to impossible to serve it.
What do you do if you get lost in an Icelandic bar?
Stand up on a chair.
article | Forests
MiCHaEl ZElEnko
It’s Not What You Can Do about the Crisis,
but What the Crisis Can Do for You
Are a melting economy and a warming planet helping resuscitate
Icelandic forests?
Xmas Comic | Hugleikur Dagsson
“With reforestation as
far from their minds
as cocktail drinks and
bikinis, Icelanders soon
found themselves largely
dependent on imported
timber.”
“In my backseat, parties
turn into sob fests. People
take their Atlas-
like burdens along home
to stew in like some
rancid marinade of
malcontent."