the bioeconomy of the arctic haraldur hallgrímsson sigrún elsa smáradóttir torfi jóhannesson
TRANSCRIPT
The Bioeconomy of the Arctic
Haraldur HallgrímssonSigrún Elsa Smáradóttir
Torfi Jóhannesson
Nice barley field
Why are the mountains white?
The harvest
Viðmið Ísland0
500
1000
1500
2000
Viðmið Ísland0
50
100
150
200
250
Growing conditions in EU and Iceland
Day-degrees Growth Days
Very severly limiting
Good condtions
Severly limiting
Why are we doing this?
• Food security• Rural development• ...
• And how do we do this?
State support
1. To stimulate production• production based direct supprt
2. To secure agricultural land use• Hectare support
3. To increase productivity• Investment support
4. To facilitate sustainable production methods• Environmental payments
Food security
1. Are the tomatoes fresh?2. Are there any tomatoes?3. Is there any food?
Food security
• Generally high levels of self-sufficiency in Iceland and the rest of Scandinavia due to high support level and import restrictions
• Lower levels in Faroe Islands and Greenland• Different situation in Russia, Canada and
Alaska
The challenge is competitievness
• How can barley production in Iceland become competitive with barley from the EU?
Uniqueness
Specialization and food security
• Specialization does not provide food security but it gives the potential
• ....and it gives positive rural development
Population density
MT NL BE UK DE IT LU CZ DK PL PT SK HU FR SI AT RO ES EL CY BG IE LT LV EE SE FI IS0.00
200.00
400.00
600.00
800.00
1,000.00
1,200.00
1,400.00
Inha
bita
nts/
km2
1/6 of Finland
1901 1950 1980 2011
9,772 9,975
14,884 15,379 West Iceland 1901 1950 1980 2011
2,331
1,246 1,194
684
Dalir – far from Reykjavík
1901 1950 1980 2011
2,993 2,848
4,356 3,922
Snæfellsnes - far from Reykjavík
1901 1950 1980 2011
2,882 2,716
3,572 3,533
Borgarfjörður- close to Reykjavík
1901 1950 1980 2011
1,566
3,165
5,762
7,240
Akranes - close to Reykjavík
Population development
Agricultural communities
Fishing communities
Bottom line:
• Bigger cities are the drivers of population development
• Agriculture and fisheries alone cannot be the backbones of future population development
Primary production has the general tendency to increase efficiency = reduce labor
CAPITAL
LABOR
TIME
When resources are fixed, employment is bound to go down
CAPITAL
LABOR
TIME
Solutions
A. To find new resourcesB. To get larger share of the value chain
Bioeconomy of the Arctic
• Research project funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers
• Will feed into the Icelandic Chairmanship of the Nordic Council in 2014.
What is the Bioeconomy of the Arctic?
Fresh water
Animal husbandry
Semi-wild food and fur production
fishing
Bioeconomy
Main Elements of the Project
• Mapping of renewable biological resources
• Food Security: Mapping food production, food export and food import
• Evaluation of utilization of biological resources and food security in the Arctic
• High level conference
Arctic Bio-economy: StatusFramework for analysis of a bio-economy:
1. Identify and quantify the biological resources available.2. Mapping of production, import and export of goods from
biological resources.3. Evaluate the utilization of biological resources with regard to
economic factors as well as the society and the environment.
•The goal is to evaluate to what extent this kind of analysis is possible for the arctic countries and to suggest metrics to use for the analysis.
•The framework will make comparison between countries possible.
Arctic bioeconomy
For further information on the Artic Bioeconomy project please contact: Sveinn Margeirsson, CEO ([email protected]) Haraldur Hallgrímsson, division director ([email protected]) Sigrún Elsa Smáradóttir, research group leader ([email protected])