Faroe Islands

Island Vulnerability explores the challenges which isolated geographies face when dealing with risk and disasters by examining the processes which create, maintain, and could be used to reduce their vulnerability. This page provides information on vulnerability issues in the Faroe Islands:

• Introduction to Vulnerability and Disaster Management in the Faroes


• Vulnerability Issues


• Some Events


• Managing Vulnerabilities of Small Island Heritage (with the Faroes as a case study).


• Some More Photographs

Hungry puffin after a tough day on Mykineshólmur.
(Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

Puffin Poetry
A pulchritudinous preponderance of puffins (115 kb in PDF).
The puffin dance (7 kb in PDF).
Puffin Zumba (21 kb in PDF).
Puffin Pie (7 kb in PDF).

Funded by the U.K.'s National Trust as an Arkell Fellow, I travelled to the Faroe Islands from 7 July 2003 to 24 July 2003 to investigate sustainability and vulnerability issues for small island heritage. The material here is a snapshot of my findings. I can claim no expertise, as evidenced by the gaps and vague statements. I am interested in learning much more about the Faroes, particularly in the context of Island Vulnerability and I have plenty yet to learn. Therefore, please contact me with feedback and suggestions, including omissions or errors. The views here are my own and reflect those of neither the National Trust nor the Faroese who kindly provided me with information, resources, and ideas and whose hospitality made me feel welcome in a spectacular country where I would wish to spend much more time.

The Faroe Islands are a self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark with a strong impetus towards independence. Approximately 46,000 people and 80,000 sheep share an area of 1,399 km² over 18 main islands along with several smaller islets. Seventeen of the islands are currently inhabited, but Koltur and Stóra Dímun have only one family each. The main settlements are the capital Tórshavn, population 12,000, and Klaksvík, population 5,000. When an underwater tunnel linking Klaksvík with the road to Tórshavn is completed in a few years (the current plan is to open this tunnel in 2006), six of the islands will be linked by tunnels, bridges, or causeways. The only international airport in the Faroes, on Vágar, was linked to the Tórshavn road by an underwater tunnel which opened in December 2002. Otherwise, the inhabited islands can be reached by boat or helicopter.

The Faroes were mainly settled about 1,100 years ago by Norwegian Vikings who took over from Celtic settlers, mostly Irish monks, who had arrived approximately three centuries earlier. The population’s first language is Faroese, a Scandinavian language with strong resemblance to Old Norse, but children learn Danish and English in school. Emigration, particularly to Denmark, has drained the population and skill base, an ongoing phenomenon which peaked during an economic crisis from 1992 to 1996. Faroese society is undergoing further economic changes, principally due to the continuing decline of agriculture and fishing combined with the search for oil in the North Sea and efforts to substantially increase tourism. The expectation of this shift has resulted in intense debate, mainly related to how to stop oil revenue causing more societal problems than it solves. Nonetheless, Faroese are proud of their rich culture and national heritage and strongly seek to preserve it.

• Coastal erosion, mainly from cliff faces falling into the sea, but in a few locations, such as in Sumba, erosion is happening closer to sea level.

  

  Coastal erosion and engineering works attempting to stop it.
  (Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

• Contamination by heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants from eating fish and whales which have been contaminated.

• Economic dependence on a few industries and on weather-dependent international transportation links.

• Emigration, lack of a diversity of opportunities, and outside influences such as American television and the internet impacting on the use of the Faroese language and the younger generation staying in the Faroes.

  
  

  An abandoned village on Vágar.
  (Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

• Fog.
  

  Driving in the fog along single-lane, mountainous roads can be fun. Until headlights belonging to a large vehicle loom in an awkward spot.
  (Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

• Landslides and rockfalls.

  
  

  Landslide near Syðradalur on Kalsoy.
  (Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

• Oil spills.

• Rainfall, flooding, and storms.

Flash flooding in Klaksvík on 18 September 2000.
(Copyright Norðlýsið 2000. Thank you to the photographer John William Joensen who kindly gave permission for the images to be reposted here.)

• The damp climate augmenting the challenges of restoring St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkjubøur.
  

  

  Protecting St. Magnus Cathedral from the damp in order to give the stonework time to dry out in preparation for restoration work.
  (Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

• The potential loss of heritage and economic opportunity if sites such as the island of Koltur are not developed appropriately and used to their fullest extent.
  

  

  The southern village of Koltur with some of the best examples of the old Norse building tradition, in terms of community layout, building design, and architecture.
  (Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

• Wind storms.
  

  
  

  Trees uprooted by wind in Tórshavn's park.
  (Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

Some Events
As prepared for the Managing Vulnerabilities of Small Island Heritage project.

• 7 December 1941 A storm sinks the ship S.S. Sauternes killing all 25 crew.
  

  

  Fugloy from Viðareiði, looking across the channel where the Sauternes sank.
  (Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

• 21 December 1988 Extratropical cyclone causes severe wind damage.

• January 1989 Extratropical cyclone uproots and topples many trees. Wind speeds are measured at 76 m/s. (273 km/h)

• 1992 to 1996 Economic crisis, with dominant factors being low fish prices worldwide and the global recession (some commentators put the economic crisis years as being 1989 to 1994).

• 3 August 1996 A Danish military aircraft crashed into a Faroese mountain killing all nine personnel aboard.

• Late March 2000 Infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) is identified in farmed salmon in Fuglafjørdur.

• 18 September 2000 Storms and landslides, particularly in the northern islands.
  

  In Klaksvík, a landslide hit this house breaking windows. (Copyright Norðlýsið 2000. Thank you to the photographer John William Joensen who kindly gave permission for the image to be reposted here.)

  Inside the house hit by the Klaksvík landslide. (Copyright Norðlýsið 2000. Thank you to the photographer John William Joensen who kindly gave permission for the image to be reposted here.)

  The Klaksvík landslide, shortly after the event. The black house at the base of the landslide was hit. (Copyright Norðlýsið 2000. Thank you to the photographer John William Joensen who kindly gave permission for the image to be reposted here.)

  The scar left by the landslide. A kindergarten and retirement home have recently been built along the same street where the landslide hit. (Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

  Victor and Gunnleyg Danjalsson whose house was hit by the landslide. Gunnleyg was trapped by the mud. Thank you to the Danjalssons for kindly sharing their story with me. (Copyright Ilan Kelman 2003.)

• 18 September 2002 The fishing boat "Herdis" KG 608 grounded on the east side of Borðoyarnes. The sole crew member was rescued and then the vessel sank.

• 11 June 2003 Fire in the engine room of the fishing boat "Oknin". No one was injured and the boat was able to proceed under its own power.

• 9 July 2003 More than 10,000 litres of diesel oil leaks into Skalafjordurin near Runavík from a Lithuanian ship.

Contact Island Vulnerability.

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