Discover the achievements of the 2014-2020 NPA projects

Seven years of cooperation between people, communities, and organisations across thousands of kilometres made a difference in the Northern Periphery and Arctic regions.

Browse the NPA map of results to discover our stories of cooperation. Pick a dot from the map and scroll down to read  about people who have met similar minded colleagues and together found solutions for their shared challenges.

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Waterfall maintenance

Hands-on help with water management

Skógafoss waterfall is one of the greatest tourist attractions with approx. 650 000 visitors in 2019. Although tourism has increased in the recent years, Skógafoss has long been a popular destination for domestic and foreign visitors. Therefore, trampling and footpath erosion have always been a problem, although it got worse recently. New paths, stairs and a viewpoint were built to prevent tourist from walking on the grass/soil. Unfortunately, the place became a victim of a common trend - better accessibility leads to more visitors and more habitat degradation. Colleagues from Northern Ireland has participated on footpath work and habitat restoration and taught their Icelandic peers new water management techniques.

 

Davíð Arnar Stefánsson

Soil Conservation Service of Iceland

We decided to invite experienced machine workers from Northern Ireland to come and work with the Icelandic footpath workers on Skógaheiði, managing water and sharing knowledge in 2018. The collaboration resulted in experimenting with new methods and techniques in water management at the site using heavy machinery as well as more delicate methods such as sheep wool in footpaths instead of artificial soil fabrics. The collaboration is still alive and we aim to meet again and possibly work more together. In that respect, the ASCENT project achieved its goals of ongoing knowledge sharing and networking.