Biodiversity
Policy
Reykjavík City's Biodiversity Policy was approved in January 2016. It defines objectives and key projects aimed at nurturing biodiversity - both within and outside city limits. The Nature City brochure was published on September 16, 2019.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of life in people's environment. It covers everything from individuals and populations of specific species to communities and ecosystems. Biodiversity forms the foundation of natural resources. These resources are vital for human survival. They also shape quality of life and happiness, especially in cities where nature can be scarce.
Reykjavík residents share their city with countless living beings. These range from whooper swans to bumblebees and birch trees to hermit crabs. The city limits contain many unique, valuable, and sensitive ecosystems. These include mudflats and seaweed shores, important habitats for waders and marine invertebrates. There are also streams housing salmon and trout populations, moss-covered lava fields, heathlands, and puffin colonies on islands. The built environment is also rich with life. City dwellers interact daily with creatures such as singing garden birds. Access to lush and sheltering vegetation is also crucial for urban residents.
Protecting living beings
Biodiversity is under threat globally, largely due to human activities. These have directly or indirectly caused habitat destruction, ecosystem degradation, and species extinction. There's growing public and government will to nurture and protect living beings and their environments. Cities worldwide are at the forefront of this journey, as land use and natural resource decisions are significant at their level. With this new policy, Reykjavík will actively participate in this work. This also supports Iceland's participation in international cooperation under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Policy is based on six main objectives
- Record and analyze information about Reykjavík's biodiversity.
- Strengthen biodiversity on city land.
- Work against the main threats to biodiversity.
- Provide widespread education about biodiversity.
- Ensure biodiversity's place in Reykjavík's operations.
- Make Reykjavík a leader in biodiversity policy and action planning.
- View the full biodiversity policy
The Nature City
The Nature City brochure was published on Icelandic Language Day, September 16, 2019.
Action plan
Each objective defines key projects directly related to the diverse actions involved in implementing the Policy. These include projects such as research on main habitat types and key species, ecosystem service assessment, protected area status evaluation, bird life monitoring, wetland recovery, increasing green space in built environments, actions against invasive plant species, beach pollution monitoring, increased public education about Reykjavík's nature, more natural solutions for climate change adaptation, and more.
A ten-year action plan was developed and approved by the City Executive Council in March 2017. The Department of Environment & Planning oversees the action plan's creation and implementation.