LT&C has just started its planning for its 2019 Annual General Meeting (AGM) and workshop. It will be Friday, May 31 in Ramberg on the Lofoten, very close to the new Lofotodden national park. The meetings will provide an opportunity to learn more about the new park, which was established on June 22 this year Tand to discuss plans or visions for protecting the wider marine surrounding of the Lofoten.

The Lofoten Islands are both, one of the most outstanding tourism destinations and highly valuable nature areas in Norway. Discussions at our workshop should, therefore, provide space to look from tourism and conservation perspectives into possibilities to develop a protected area system for the wider region. The present Lofotodden national park covers only a minor part in the South-West Lofoten mountains (86 km2) and very little of the important marine surroundings (13km2). For those reading Norwegian have a look on kongelig-resolusjon-forslag-til-verneplan-for-lofotodden-nasjonalpark-i-moskenes-og-flakstad-kommune-nordland-fylke-180622.

In the light that other parties proposed to protect entire Vestfjorden and that there is a hot political debate to protect the outer seas offshore the Lofoten, Vesterålen, and Senja from any oil development, the new national park is much too small. It is actually a clear case for LT&C to stimulate and facilitate cooperation of tourism representatives and conservation organizations to come up with much more comprehensive proposals for a representative terrestrial and marine Lofoten protected area network.

If you are interested in this discussion and want to participate at the AGM and workshop, you may let us know already now: