Restoration challenges and strategies in Iceland

The main challenge to restoration in Iceland is vast areas of severely degraded land that has limited resource retention and limited ecosystem functioning. These are often hostile environments for plant establishment and survival, due to unstable surfaces that are prone to intensive cryoturbation and erosion by wind and have limited water-holding capacity. Most of the degraded rangelands are open to traditional sheep grazing, which may limit restoration options and affect their success. The size of the degraded areas calls for low-input, but effective restoration strategies. Iceland has long history of fight against soil erosion and reclamation for improved productivity of rangelands. However, these efforts have for the most part been based on agronomic approaches. Emerging restoration objectives, resulting in part from more diverse land uses and in part from new environmental standards on national and international level, call for new methodology. Restoration of damaged ecosystems is one of the three main themes of soil conservation work in Iceland today. The others are halting of severe erosion and land degradation and promoting sustainable land use. Historically, most restoration work has been done by a public agency, the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), but increasingly more is being carried out by different stakeholders, including farmers and other landowners, NGO’s, and interested individuals. Financial incentives and education about the importance of conserving and restoring fertile soils and healthy ecosystems are means to engage different stakeholders and promote sustainable use. Methods of restoration in Iceland are shifting from being primarily agronomic in character to being increasingly based on ecological principles, where the aim is to promote ecosystem development and direct succession. The use of native species, including trees and shrubs is increasing, and there is growing emphasis on low input approaches instead of intense methods involving wholesale planting or sowing. Research efforts are being directed at the underlying processes of succession and how it is affected by different reclamation treatment, the ecology and behavior of key species, the use of native species in restoration, and various technical aspects of revegetation.