Vega management hub

Established by the Ministry of the Environment in 2010 when Vega municipality was given management responsibility for the protected areas in the municipality. The management hub consists of the Vega conservation area board, the Vegaøyan Foundation and the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate. The three bodies will coordinate their work in areas such as conservation and information.

Professional Council

From 2023, the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation will have a technical council that will ensure good and knowledge-based development of the World Heritage work. The council will have administrative representatives from Vega municipality, Vega protected area board, the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate, Vega Verdensarvsenter AS, Nordland County Council - Cultural Monuments in Nordland, Helgeland Museum, the State Governor of Nordland, the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage, one representative from the world heritage area and one from the buffer zone. The State Governor of Nordland will have representation based on the issues to be addressed.

In addition, the board may invite others to participate in the advisory board. The advisory board shall be an important support for the CEO, contribute expertise in various fields, and can provide advice on matters to be presented to the board. The Foundation's CEO prepares cases and convenes meetings of the Advisory Board.

Advisory committees

The Foundation has an advisory board that provides input to the Foundation's work. The advisory committee consists of 21 local and regional teams, associations and bodies. The advisory committees of the Foundation and the Vega conservation area board hold joint meetings. The following teams and associations participate in the Foundation's advisory committee:

Vega school, Vega grazing team, Vega farmers' and smallholders' association, Vega bondelag, Vegaøyans Venner, Landowner representatives from Muddvær, Flovær, Skjærvær, Eidemsliene and Søla, Hysvær landowner association, Nordland Ærfugllag, Utværet Lånan, Vega Kystlag, Vega fiskerlag, Aktiv Vega, Naturvernforbundet Nordland, Nesna og omegn lokallag av NOF (norsk ornitologisk forening) Nordland, Aktiv Vega, Vega verdensarvsenter, landowner association Skogsholmen, UL Skogholt

Administrative contact committee

The Vega conservation area board has an administrative contact committee with the foundation's general manager and with the head of agriculture, head of environmental protection/planning and head of tourism from Vega municipality. All parties provide information about the issues they are working on at the meetings.

Norway's world heritage

Nationally, the Foundation is a member of Norway's World Heritage, a network for the Norwegian World Heritage Sites. The network will address common issues for the Norwegian World Heritage sites and meets in connection with the annual World Heritage Forum, a conference that focuses on current issues related to World Heritage. The Norwegian network also meets at the annual Nordic World Heritage meeting.

Nordic network

The Nordic World Heritage Sites meet annually for a conference to discuss common challenges and opportunities. In 2016, the sites organized themselves into a Nordic association - the Nordic World Heritage Association (NWHA) at the Nordic meeting in Iceland.

Collaborative projects

The Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation has several collaborative projects with various partners:

SOUND OF SILENCE - BODØ2024

The Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation will take part in the "Sound of Silence" project in Bodø as European City of Culture from April 2-7, 2024. The project aims to put the situation for seabirds on the national and international agenda. Sound of Silence will bring together politicians, managers, scientists and the people on the coast with the practical knowledge to learn from each other, gain a common understanding of what the situation is for seabird populations and what can be done to save the world's seabirds. Art and culture are important tools that are used - also to develop an artistic community between the sites on a common issue. Children and young people are priority target groups and are given their own workshops and events.

Read more: www.soundofsilence.no

FUGLAN VEIT

Sound of Silence has been a sub-project in the research and dissemination project "Fuglan veit" (2020 - 2024) at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway. In collaboration with local partners in Vega, Porsanger and Vardø, FUGLAN VEIT aims to create new knowledge and awareness of seabirds as part of coastal culture.

In the 1970s, researchers from Tromsø Museum traveled around the country to document the coastal population's knowledge and practices regarding seabirds (Bratrein 1975-78). Hundreds of interviews, sound recordings, notes and photos were taken: in the egg and down yards; of various egg gathering practices and of seabird hunting. In collaboration with local partners, FUGLAN VEIT will use this almost 50-year-old archive in local exhibitions and storytelling workshops in Vega, Vardø and Porsanger. The archive material is seen as a tool for remembering and highlighting rich and hand-carried knowledge about seabirds. It will provide opportunities to reflect on continuity and change. How can the coastal population's care and management contribute to better management of endangered seabirds in a time of major climate and environmental challenges.

Read more: uit.no/project/fuglan

CVI - CLIMATE VULNERABILITY

Vegaøyan World Heritage Site is the first cultural landscape area in Norway to have undergone a Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) assessment. The method was developed at James Cook University in Australia, which was also assisted by a researcher associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Norwegian initiator of the climate vulnerability assessment was the Directorate for Cultural Heritage, with the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation as partners.   

Read more: Reports

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

The development of sustainable tourism is crucial to safeguarding the values of a vulnerable area like Vegaøyan: The foundation collaborated with Vega Næringsselskap on the development of the local tourism strategy and the pilot project Bærekraftig Reiseliv, which ran from 2010 to 2012. Since then, Vega municipality has taken over this work and had the area recertified as a sustainable destination in 2018. The tourism strategy was developed on the basis of a vulnerability analysis carried out by the Foundation for the world heritage area. Subsequently, the Vega protected area board has created an approved plan for visitor management. The aim of the project is, among other things, guided travel to selected visitor destinations, travel on nature's terms and at the same time local value creation and development. Work on the visitor management plan has taken place in close dialog with the landowners.

Vega municipality has been a pilot for Nordland County in the Responsible Marketing project.

COOPERATION ON BUILDING PROTECTION

Nordland County Council, Helgeland Museum, Vega Municipality and the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation are working together to establish a building conservation center on Vega in connection with Vega's old vicarage. As of 2023, Helgeland Museum has two employees working on the establishment of the center and other building conservation work. The old barn will contain a workshop for courses and a materials bank. The museum's employees have offices at the World Heritage Center.

Since 2006, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage has annually allocated funds for building conservation measures in the Vegaøyan World Heritage Site and in the buffer zone with Vega and Ylvingen. In recent years, allocations to the Vegaøyan World Heritage Site have amounted to just over NOK 5 million and have gone to a number of different projects that mean that important parts of the building heritage in the World Heritage Site today stand out as an example of best practice in building conservation.

COLLABORATION ON DOCUMENTATION

Since 2019, the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation, Vega Municipality, Vega Protected Area Board and Vega World Heritage Center have collaborated on collecting documentation about the world heritage values, protection regulations for the protected areas, combined with information about Vega as a travel destination.

Documentation of the natural values has taken place in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy (NIBIO) on The vega source which contains map-based information about the cultural landscape, management, vegetation, marine environment and cultural history of the Vegaøyan World Heritage Site. NIBIO has mapped vegetation and wildlife on more than 1000 islands in the World Heritage area. The foundation has contributed information about the eider bird tradition and the Vega protected area board/State Administrator in Nordland has added map data in this field. The Vega World Heritage Center and the Foundation have contributed cultural and historical documentation, and Vega municipality has provided information about Vega as a tourist destination. The documentation has been compiled and can be read on a separate large screen at the World Heritage Center.

The foundation has also collaborated with landscape photographer Oskar Pushmann, NIBIO, on re-photography of the World Heritage area presented in the exhibition "Looking back and looking forward". In 2020, Pushmann was in Vegaøyan and rephotographed motifs taken by Anders Beer Wilse and Helge A. Wold, among others. Wold. Anders Beer Wilse (1865 - 1949) became known as the great Norwegian photographer who traveled around the country taking photographs in the first half of the 20th century. He also took a trip to Flovær and Lånan. Other motifs in the exhibition were taken in Lånan by Helge A. Wold. In 1985, he won the award for best documentary novel with the book "Utvær" from Lånan and the island world off Vega. The most recent photographs were taken by researchers from the National Heritage Board, NIBIO in the 1990s and the Norwegian Environment Agency after 2000.

EIDER ARCHITECTURE

One of the most important collaborative projects has been with the bird watchers since 2006. The aim has been to restore as many of the old eagle houses (eagle houses for one or more eiders - see picture) as possible and to build new ones. Nordland Ærfugllag has also been a partner in this project through the training of new eider keepers.
In total, there has been an increase in the number of nests from 2,220 to approximately 3,100 in the period 2006 - 2023. During the same period, Nordland Ærfugllag and its partners have held courses for around 70 new eider keepers.

NORTH ATLANTIC COOPERATION

Between 2009 and 2012, the Foundation, NIBIO Tjøtta (formerly Bioforsk Nord Tjøtta) and local birdwatchers ran a joint Nordic project on eider ducks with representatives from Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The project focused on eider ducks as a sustainable resource in coastal fringe areas in the North Atlantic countries. NIBIO Tjøtta was the project owner, with the Foundation as a partner. The project was funded via NORA - North Atlantic Cooperation, from the Greenland Home Rule Government, Nordland County Council, the county's agricultural department, Bioforsk Nord and the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation. In September 2010, a Nordic eider conference was held on Vega with around 50 participants and presentations from all the participating countries.

In August 2012, Vega was visited by 20 eider farmers from Iceland and eider keepers from the Vega Islands visited Iceland in August 2014. The aim is to continue the collaboration for mutual benefit, including research on eiderdown and its insulating properties.

COLLABORATION WITH NERINGA NATIONAL PARK AND NERINGA MUNICIPALITY

In 2009/2010, the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation was invited to take part in a project on the management of world heritage areas initiated by Neringa National Park and Neringa Municipality. The aim of the project was, among other things, to exchange experiences between the institutions working with World Heritage in the two places. A group of representatives from Vega School, Helgeland Museum, Vega Municipality and the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation was invited to Lithuania in April 2010 and in June the same year a group from Neringa came to Vega. The project resulted in a report that summarized the experiences from the meetings and suggested areas where the two World Heritage Sites could work together. There have also been joint discussions on the development of a communication strategy, including a website structure.  

COOPERATION WITH THE MALOPOLSKA REGION IN POLAND

Good management of World Heritage Sites was also the theme of the collaborative project "Management of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Poland and Norway".

The National Heritage Board was the Norwegian partner and was contacted by the International Cultural Center (ICC) in Krakow in the winter of 2008/2009 about the project. ICC wanted to include the Norwegian World Heritage Sites Bryggen in Bergen, Urnes Stave Church, Bergstaden Røros and Vegaøyan in the project, where the Polish partners wanted to take a closer look at how the Norwegian World Heritage Sites are managed. The project has now ended, but the Polish partners are working actively to develop new projects for which they are seeking partners. This is an important way of financing World Heritage work in the EEA countries. At the same time, it provides positive experiences through discussion and by seeing how challenges are solved elsewhere. Read more on the project website http://heritage.org.pl/Unesco.