The difficult search for sustainable tourism in the Arctic

Home of polar bears and scene of the Midnight Sun and the Northern Lights, a Norwegian archipelago nestled in the Arctic tries to take advantage of its pristine nature, but without ruining it.

The Svalbard archipelago, 1,300 km from the North Pole and accessible by commercial flight, offers visitors vast expanses of wilderness, with majestic mountains, glaciers and frozen fjords.

More Well, the fjords used to be frozen. Svalbard is now on the front line of climate change, with the Arctic warming three times faster than the planet.

The coal mines, which gave rise to the first human settlements on the site, have closed over the years and tourism has become a tourist attraction. It is one of the main pillars of the local economy, along with scientific research.

“It is always difficult to defend because we know that tourism creates challenges for everyone. the sites that people visit, as well as well as in the broader perspective of climate change”, he admitted. Ronny Brunvoll, head of the Visit Svalbard tourism board.

“We can’t stop people from traveling, we can’t stop people from visiting each other, like this.” So we have to find solutions,” he added.

Around 140,000 people visit these latitudes each year, according to pre-pandemic data. The zone has 65% of its territory under protection.

Like the 3,000 local residents, visitors must follow strict rules that prevent them from disturbing animals (following a polar bear can lead to a huge fine) or picking flowers in an ecosystem almost devoid of vegetation.

“You are really in front of nature. There aren’t many places like this left” Frederique Barraja, a French photographer, in one of his frequent visits to the area.

that you should be respectful when visiting them,” he added.

The polluting heavy fuel oil, used on large cruise ships, has been banned in the archipelago since the beginning of the year, before the restriction is phased in throughout the Arctic from 2024.

Large cruise ships can drop off as many as 5,000 passengers in Longyearbyen, the archipelago’s modest main town whose infrastructure, such as roads and toilets, is lacking. designed to receive such large groups.

– Electric Wave –

Some tour operators go further. Legal requirements, such as the Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten, which seeks to become “the most environmentally friendly tour operator in the world”.

Sustainability “should not be a comparative advantage” ;, commented Henrik Lund, an executive of the group. “It should only give the right to operate.”

The company prohibited in 2018 the single-use plastics and now offers tours on electric snowmobiles. excursions aboard the modern hybrid ship Kvitbjorn (polar bear, in Norwegian), which combines a diesel engine with electric batteries.

“In idyllic exploration areas, we use only electricity. We go in silence and we don’t leave combustion smoke”, he pointed out. Johan Inden, head of marine engine maker Volvo Penta.

But there’s a catch: in Svalbard, the electricity comes from a coal-fired plant, a climate-changing fossil fuel.

“Electrification makes sense, regardless of the energy source,” Christian Eriksen of the Norwegian environmental group Bellona.

Whether it comes from “dirty” sources; Or “clean,” electricity “makes it possible to reduce emissions,” according to Eriksen, citing a study on electric cars that came to light. He jumped to that conclusion.

Still, Longyearbyen plans to close the plant by 2023, invest in renewable energy and reduce its emissions by 80% by 2030.

“We have to recognize that the really big problem we have is transportation to and from Svalbard, both for tourists and for all of us locals,” he said. Brunvoll.