Saga - 2008, Page 55

Abstract
unnur b i rna karl sdótt i r
R E A L M O F T H E P I N K - F O O T E D G O O S E
The struggle to preserve fijórsárver, 1959–2007
The article analyses conflicts between energy development policy and environ-
mental conservation in the Icelandic highlands, as demonstrated by the debate
over the fijórsárver wetlands, which form a recognised protected area and are
included in the Ramsar Directory as an internationally important wetland area.
The idea of declaring fijórsárver a protected area for its conservation value, in
particular for its importance as the largest nesting area of the pink-footed goose,
arose during the 1950s. The article traces from that time to the present the con-
servationist struggle for preserving fijórsárver, a struggle centred on convincing
the Icelandic government of the value of these wetlands due to their ecology and
natural conditions. During the same period, energy companies under public
ownership presented various plans for area hydropower plants that would entail
fijórsárver being submerged by a reservoir. The government felt this hydropow-
er was needed for energy-intensive industrial development. In 1981 a compro-
mise was made in the form of an agreement that part of the wetlands would be
preserved, though the possibility was left open that the reservoir might someday
encroach on the protected area, in addition to submerging the unprotected parts
of the wetlands. This agreement constituted a definite milestone in the struggle
for conserving these wetland oases in the Icelandic highlands; nevertheless, the
conservationists continued to fight the position of the government and the energy
company that conservation and power development could coexist in fijórsárver.
The conservationist argument against this position was that humans intruding in
an ecosystem in the manner intended at fijórsárver would inevitably lead to neg-
ative changes in the area’s natural ecology. In the aftermath, the wetlands would
no longer remain an untouched, unique natural phenomenon of the Icelandic
highlands, ruled only by the laws of nature. The controversy over fijórsárver has
yet to reach a conclusion, though its history so far reveals in a nutshell how weak
the standing of conservation is in Iceland vis-a-vis the Icelandic government’s
energy policy and the demands of energy companies to use land for hydropow-
er.
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