Björk took part in a press conference over the weekend, as part of Iceland Airwaves in Reykjavik, in a bid to higlight the need for action to protect Iceland’s Highlands from environmental destruction.
A campaign set up by Icelandic coalition organisation Gætum Garðsins (“Protect the Park”) in March of last year is aiming to raise awareness of the need for conversation of Iceland’s Highland, which currently forms the largest area of untouched wilderness in Europe drawing tourists from all over the world. For the conference, Björk released a video message asking “the world to support us against our Government.
“Our government has plans to build over 50 dams and power plants in this area – and to start next year. This could end Iceland’s wilderness in a few years. We propose to start a national park in our highlands. Surveys have already proved that the majority of Icelanders are behind us.”
Björk went on to say that “Icelanders have a deadline. For 11 more days, they can go online and protest an overhead high-voltage power line that will be built across the whole island.” She was joined by writer and environmentalist Andri Snær Magnason for the press conference.
The Icelandic Tourist Board claims that 80% of foreign visitors to the country come to experience Iceland’s wilderness, and around half of those specifically for the central highlands, the area that the organisation is aiming to protect. The area is apparently currently under threat of extensive development by the Icelandic Government with plans to pave roads and build power lines through the centre of the country “cleaving the wilderness in two areas,” according to Magnason.
