VEGAØYAN WORLD HERITAGE FOUNDATION
The eider tradition
The eider tradition has a history of more than 1,000 years in Helgeland and Nordland. Around 1900, 1 ton of down was exported from Nordland. At that time, around 10,000 eiders were nesting in Vegaøyan. After people moved away from the islands, the population declined drastically. Many birds left the islands when they did not have the same protection as before. Others were killed by mink, and many seabirds died when the Deyfovos sank off Helgeland in the 1980s.
Around the year 2000, the down-weather tradition was at a crossroads. The oldest birdwatchers no longer saw the possibility of continuing and younger ones did not have the financial means to take time off to be on the islands during the breeding season. With its World Heritage status, the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation now has the financial means to subsidize birdwatchers to be out on the islands. This has resulted in a positive development in the Vega Islands. The number of birds and birdwatchers has now tripled from a few years ago. In 2016, there were 18 birdwatchers and 1,273 birds nesting in the old dunes. In recent years, however, the number of nesting eiders has declined for various reasons. Otter attacks have led to a major reduction in the two largest downy areas, Lånan and Muddvær. Climate change and possible food shortages in some places due to the death of kelp pods may be other reasons. There is a lack of both research and monitoring of the area. Putting this in place is a priority area for the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation and is pointed out in the Vegaøyan World Heritage impact assessment carried out by Instead Heritage in 2021 - 2022.
In 2023, the foundation and its partner Nordland County Council/Riksantikvaren contributed around NOK 2.1 million in various grants to the 201 bird watchers, recruitment measures, courses for new eider watchers, transport during the breeding season, predator control and information/dissemination measures.
The Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation, in collaboration with Nordland Ærfugllag, has worked to recruit new birdwatchers and increase the number of nests and eider houses in the world heritage area through courses, extra grants for the restoration of old eider houses and the construction of new ones.
The foundation also supports the work of Utværet Lånan AS, which was established by the bird watchers in Lånan, and has contributed funds for communication initiatives, including a children's book and the film Lånandyna, which tells the story of the downy weather tradition.