Forget volcanoes belching out lava over a landscape of towering mountains and plunging waterfalls. If you venture away from the tourist trail and Instagram views, you will find a quieter but nonetheless awe-inspiring side to Iceland: its remarkable wetlands. Despite being an internationally important habitat for breeding migratory birds, this is a landscape under pressure. For the third in our series of blogs focused on conservation at a flyway scale, Nick Williams, Flyway Conservation Outreach Officer at the RSPB, explores a whole other side to the land of fire and ice and what is being done to protect it.
A landscape under pressure Ditches. Stretching relentlessly towards the horizon. Angular cuts carved deep into peat soil. I am standing with two colleagues on the edge of a farm in south-west Iceland and as we gaze across this landscape it’s hard not to feel depressed.
That is because this view is far from unique. All over lowland Iceland wetlands have been drained to convert land for agricultural use, primarily livestock grazing and silage production. Today it is estimated that over 34,000km of ditches criss-cross the country’s low-lying areas with more than 70% of lowland wetlands here being impacted by drainage.
Agricultural ditches have drained vast areas of Iceland’s precious wetlands. Credit: Róbert Stefánsson.
This changing land use has far-reaching impacts. Drying and damaging the soil releases carbon that has been stored within the wetlands and so hampers our fight against the climate crisis. It also destroys internationally important habitat for a range of migratory bird species and so puts pressure on species and ecosystems not just in Iceland but across western Europe, including the UK, and even Africa. That is because Iceland’s lowland wetlands provide vitally important habitat for wading birds, including Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Common Snipe and many more, which migrate here every year to breed and raise their chicks alongside the wetlands’ tranquil pools and amongst their grassy tussocks.
Iceland’s lowland wetlands, like the Flói Nature Reserve in south-west Iceland, provide vital breeding habitat for many migratory species. Credit: Nick Williams (rspb-images.com).
Iceland is of enormous international importance for these breeding waders. A staggering 52% of the global population of Eurasian Golden Plover breed in Iceland as well as 27% of the world’s Eurasian Whimbrel and 12% of all Common Redshank. As they fly south after the breeding season, heading for warmer climes, these birds forge connections between Iceland and many other countries along their routes.
For example, the Redshank that we see feeding along our coastlines in the UK throughout autumn and winter have almost all flown here from Iceland. So if the quality and availability of breeding habitat in Iceland declines, we will see the effects of it on our own shores.
Over half of the world’s breeding pairs of Eurasian Golden Plover are found in Iceland. Credit: Nick Williams (rspb-images.com).
Re-wetting for wadersTo help respond to this challenge, the RSPB is working with Icelandic conservation organisation Fuglavernd (or BirdLife Iceland), alongside local and national partners including the Land and Forest Service and University of Agriculture, to re-wet several hundred hectares of degraded habitat. This involves blocking or filling in ditches, which have been historically used to drain the land, and so raising the water table to restore the pools, interspersed with grassy areas, which a wide range of species rely on.
Ditches at the Oddi project site in southern Iceland where habitat is set to be restored for birds and other wildlife. Credit: Nick Williams (rspb-images.com).
This restoration of wetland sites in Iceland is part of a wider programme of RSPB work, supported by the Ecological Restoration Fund, to protect and restore important habitats for migratory birds. The project will target key landscapes all of which sit on the East Atlantic Flyway migration route – a bird superhighway that stretches from the Arctic, through the UK and western Europe, all the way to the southern tip of Africa. You can learn more about some of our other exciting work as part of this project in our recent blogs focused on Ghana and South Africa.
Black-tailed Godwits rely on the varied habitat of Iceland’s lowland wetlands to breed successfully here. Credit: Nick Williams (rspb-images.com).
Beyond the ditchesUnfortunately these precious wetlands are not only under threat from agricultural drainage. Other pressures include residential summer house developments, energy infrastructure and the planting of non-native tree species to generate carbon credits.
This last factor has become particularly concerning in recent years. Lowland Iceland was historically much more forested than it is today; expanses of hardy birch were interspersed with wetland patches in a mosaic of different habitats. However, the tree-planting schemes that are now being developed in many parts of the country are not looking to restore those native birch woodlands but instead to introduce conifer species which are not native to Iceland.
An aerial view reveals the tell-tale cut lines across a grassland that is being prepared for tree-planting. Credit: Nick Williams (rspb-images.com).
These plantations, often made up of a single tree species, do not support the same levels of biodiversity that the wetlands play host to and their introduction reduces the availability of suitable nesting habitat for species, including many migratory waders, that rely on wetlands and wet grasslands in which to breed successfully. These non-native trees can also become invasive and take over areas in which they were not intended to grow at all, potentially putting more habitat at risk.
Non-native conifer plantations, quiet and dark beneath the canopy, are replacing wetlands and grasslands in some parts of Iceland. Credit: Nick Williams (rspb-images.com).
Furthermore, it is estimated to take around 15 years from when the ground is first prepared for planting before the trees begin to sequester carbon at the necessary level to generate their first credits. During this time more carbon is lost from the soil’s reserves as the ground is dug up and the straight lines of saplings established.
In the right areas, and using the right species, tree planting has a hugely important role to play in our fight against the climate crisis. However, getting that choice of location and species right is vital if we are to avoid doing more harm than good. So we are supporting Fuglavernd to make sure that wetlands, and other important habitat in Iceland, get the legal protections they need to ensure that only the most appropriate sites are chosen for this tree planting, or ‘afforestation’.
Looking to the futureWe look forward to bringing you more updates as our work with Fuglavernd to protect and restore wetland habitat in Iceland continues. The next steps in the project should see restoration activities take place at two sites in the coming months, making more habitat available for the wonderful migratory species that call this fascinating island home. By working closely together in partnership, we hope to establish a clear example of what it is possible to achieve for the conservation of migratory birds at a flyway scale.
Iceland’s lowland wetlands are not only important for waders but also support a variety of other bird species including Red-throated Divers. Credit: Nick Williams (rspb-images.com).
AcknowledgementsThis project is being undertaken in partnership with Fuglavernd (BirdLife Iceland) and forms part of the RSPB Flyway Conservation team’s new programme of work to protect and restore key sites along the East Atlantic Flyway. This programme has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ecological Restoration Fund.
The Ecological Restoration Fund supports work that protects biodiverse hotspots, rejuvenates degraded landscapes and promotes local environmental activism. They are committed to re-establishing nature’s essential interconnections while fostering cultural, social and economic opportunities for the communities inhabiting those landscapes.
Continue reading• Conservation at a Flyway Scale: Reconnecting and restoring savannah habitat in northern Ghana• Conservation at a Flyway Scale: Restoring vital habitat for migratory birds at South Africa’s Berg River Estuary• Looking to the skies – the UK’s importance on a bird superhighway
Want our blogs emailed to you automatically? Click the cog in the top right of this page and select 'turn blog notifications on' (if you have an RSPB blog account) or 'subscribe by email'.