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| Svalbard | Ski for Nature 2008: |
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In May 2008 Telemarkzone visited Spitsbergen, the largest island in the arctic archipelago of Svalbard. The 1925 Treaty of Svalbard gave the sovereignty of the archipelago to Norway, but all 41 signatories retained equal rights to exploit resources and establish mining claims. Thus Svalbard today is home to a surprisingly international community.
The Telemarkzone organization went to partner with a local family dogsledding business Svalbard Villmarkssenter, owned by the Vatvik family in Lonyearbyen, the main settlement being an old coal mining outpost and now the tourism center of Svalbard with about 2000 inhabitants.
Our focus was to explore possibilities for helping the Vatvik family diversify their low-impact ecotourism business, which focuses on dog-sled tours, to include other non-mechanized forms of tourism like backcountry skiing and snow kiting.
We were literally blown away by the untapped potential for using dogsleds to access spectacular backcountry ski opportunities in this region. Dogsleds and the Vilmarkssenter infrastructure provided us with an embarrassingly luxurious backcountry experience, complete with beer, wine, and Reindeer meat roasted in a wood oven. 24 hours of daylight meant we *never* felt in a rush, frequently beginning our “ski day” at 6pm, while enjoying ski descents in the low angle of the midnight sun. The terrain is perfect for ski mountaineering and ski touring. Technically easy to moderate ascents and descents of slopes with a vertical drop of up to 1000m and breathtaking views on the Artic sea and table mountains make this skiing an ideal low impact tourism activity. In addition, the terrain was perfect for snow kiting to use winds for accessing mountains to climb from the camp or just to have fun playing with the wind on a day without ski touring.
Growing tourism impacting the fragile environment
Svalbard has recently received much press attention due to the impacts of climate change on this fragile Arctic ecosystem. Climate change already is leading to a loss of sea ice, which is critical habitat for the 3000 polar bears that live on Svalbard. Polar bears depend on sea ice to hunt seals that live in the fjords.
With all this attention on climate change and polar bears, tourism and international research projects have far surpassed coal mining in terms of public importance and visitor numbers for Svalbard – and could soon dominate the Svalbard economy. Tourism in particular, while increasing local economic opportunities, threatens to impact this fragile environment. In the region around the main town of Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen tourism has increased to 50,000 people annually. Snowmobile tourism has been rapidly growing and now dominates tourism activities in the winter and spring. In some valleys even kilometers away from the town there can be seventy and more snow mobiles passing by, leading to noise pollution and “high marking” on the mountain slopes.
There are few restrictions on snowmobile traffic in part due to the local economic power of the conventional tour operators. Berit and Karl Vatvik, with their eco tourism company, Svalbard Villmarkssenter, have been leading the path of local sustainable tourism. In large part due to their efforts, a region near Longyearbyen has recently been closed to motorized traffic to protect the wildlife and Arctic soundscape. The Vatviks offer dog sledding trips in winter and early spring as an eco friendly way of experiencing the Arctic. In the summer, they also use dogs to pull ‘buggies’ on wide soft tires through designated paths of the wilderness. The Villmarkssenter just received a sustainable ecotourism certification from Norway, one of only five in the country. They depend on areas closed to motorized traffic where people can enjoy the tranquility of the place, watch wildlife, and get closer to a unique and threatened environment. They argue strongly that this approach is not just about low carbon emissions, it is about providing opportunities for spiritual resuscitation of the human race. Still, despite their efforts, they remain a small voice in a local economy dominated by more conventional tourism operations.
Goals of Ski for Nature
One goal of this Telemarkzone project was to work with Villmarkssenter to incorporate backcountry ski tourism and other low impact tourism activities into their existing dogsledding business. Given the expansive terrain, dogsleds are ideal for accessing “hot spots” for ski descents and snow kiting. By helping the Villmarkssenter to expand its offerings and increase demand for low impact ecotourism, we hope to increase the strength and size of the voice for sustainable economic development of the island. Together we discussed ecotourism opportunities around Longyearbyen, defined hot spots for ski touring and for snow kiting, helped design marketable ski tourism packages and produced visual marketing material in photo reports. We are now jointly improving and developing the existing Villmarkssenter website for addressing the proposed new markets, activities and clients.
Further outreach models will be tested, for example with students from universities coming for internships in sustainable tourism management.
The first commercial dogsled – ski touring – snow kiting package will be offered in April 2009 and can be booked at Pathfinder Travels.
Find more information on Svalbard Villmarkssenter, check here for a short movie trailer, download a detailed trip description and explore further links to related web sites.
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