Individual travelers

Last updated 8 October 2024

Traffic in Svalbard may have a negative impact on birds, mammal, vegetation and cultural sites and monuments. Individual travellers must notify the Governor of Svalbard’ office prior to trips in areas subject to notification. Most travellers behave in a considerate manner, but there are exceptions. The time series with the number of individual travellers in notifiable areas shows the development of types of traffic far from the settlements in Svalbard.

Status and trend

The numbers of individual travellers varied between 400 and 700 from 1998 until 2014. Since then, the numbers have usually varied between 700 and 900. Low figures in 2020-2021 are due to the coronavirus pandemic.  During the pandemic, many permanent residents were out hiking, and some research activity was upheld.

Scientists make up a varying proportion of the total figure, depending on the kind of research projects taking place at any one time and where they are located. During the International Polar Year in 2007–2008 there were more scientists than usual doing fieldwork.

The Governor’s tourism statistics since 2019 distinguish between two types of purposes for visitors to Svalbard: recreation and research. The latest figures show that 2/3 have recreation and 1/4 have research as their purpose. The length of stay for researchers in the field is often longer, and in 2022 and 2023, researchers conducting fieldwork accounted for 50 per cent of the individual field days in Svalbard.

Causal factors

According to the Governor’s office, the number of privately owned yachts visiting Svalbard increased up to 2008. The yachts usually sail along the west coast of Spitsbergen, but some also venture much further. An increase in the number of small boats in Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund may have contributed to the increase in numbers of individual travellers in areas where notification is mandatory.

The International Polar Year 2007–2008 accounted for some of the increase from 2006 to 2008. Since 2013 the number of individual travellers has increased (except during the coronavirus pandemic), probably caused by both scientist and other travellers.

Most individual traffic takes place from June through August.

Consequences

As a category, “individual travellers” spans a wide range of types of travellers who have different reasons for their stay, involving various traffic and field activities that can affect animal and plant life, terrain, soil and cultural sites and monuments, among other things. Possible negative consequences for biodiversity in Svalbard depend on how traffic and field activities are carried out, and a number of factors affect this:

• the travellers’ characteristics, such as knowledge, competence and experience in terms of regulations, safety, local conditions and the natural environment, cultural sites and monuments, heedful traffic, etc.
• the purpose of the trips, including type of activities, locations, season, group distribution and traffic patterns
• the duration of the trips (number of field days) and the number of participants
• organisation and implementation, including security measures, means of transport, accommodation, etc.

The characteristics of the individual travellers have an impact on how biodiversity is affected. The travellers’ level of knowledge, expertise and experience varies, in terms of relevant regulations, safety, local conditions and the natural environment, cultural environment and heedful traffic. Everyone is responsible for familiarising themselves and complying with laws and regulations, and educational and research institutions have an overall responsibility for training their personnel.

Most individual travellers behave properly, but there are exceptions, usually caused by lack of knowledge about the regulations. Individual travellers are known to have breached (or tried to breach) the Cultural Heritage Act in recent years, e.g. by disregarding restrictions on travel and camping, burning bonfires within the security zone surrounding protected cultural heritage sites and ignoring the ban on export of protected bone remains and fossils. Many individual travellers wish to experience the unique wildlife in Svalbard, the wilderness and exciting cultural heritage sites and monuments. Individual travellers perform landings at locations they choose themselves, without being led by an expedition leader or a guide. They do not have to follow The Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO)’s guidelines like many tour operators do. Responsible and heedful travel is required to ensure that individual travellers do not disturb or damage biodiversity, but it is challenging for the administrative authorities in Svalbard to control and enforce this.

The consequences of research in Svalbard depend on methods and implementation, among other things. Some research activities are more invasive, such as trapping, anesthetizing and tagging animals, or collecting samples from and carry out detailed studies of e.g. plants, soil and small organisms. Such methods may have large consequences, but if implemented correctly and responsibly, there will predominantly be short-term and local impacts without significant and lasting consequences for biodiversity. Research activities can also be gentle, such as counting animals and plants or physical measurements and observations related to water, permafrost, snow, glaciers, sea ice, etc. Research activities in Svalbard may be subject to application, especially in the event of a possible impact on the natural environment. The Governor grants research permits and receives reports after the fieldwork has been completed, and thus has control and an overview of such activities.

How traffic and field visits in Svalbard affect biodiversity depends on time and space. Whether species and habitats are vulnerable to impacts varies with both seasonal and site-specific conditions. Vegetation, terrain and soil are not exposed to impact under frozen and snow-covered ground but may be more easily affected in wet conditions. Certain vegetation types are generally more vulnerable to trampling than others, depending on the tolerance of plants/substrate and the plants’ ability to regrow after damage. Many animal species experience periods during the year when they are more vulnerable to disturbances (e.g. breeding season for Arctic foxes, nesting and moulting periods for birds and denning periods for polar bears). During the spring and summer months of May-August the animals are particularly exposed to impacts depending on of the vulnerability of the species and overlap with the peak season for boat traffic, trips and other field activities in Svalbard.

Group distribution and traffic patterns among individual travellers also influence the consequences of the impacts. A large group that stays together and travels in a limited area affects nature differently than an equal number of people divided into many smaller groups, who travel further and more dispersed. Tent camps located in the same place for a long time may cause vegetation wear and trail formation, while groups that move more can affect nature in larger areas. Research groups often stay in the same place over a long field period. The number of field days is more important for the consequences than the number of people, but this factor is not registered here.

Nearly every year, polar bears in Svalbard are killed in self-defence. In recent decades only a few have been felled outside Management Region 10. Several were shot by scientists and some by tourists or guides. When people travel in areas frequented by polar bears, conflict situations that are fatal for the polar bears or people may arise, and the number of incidents is expected to increase. Thorough training, correct equipment for scaring off bears and knowledge of how to use it are important factors to avoid conflicts.

About the monitoring

National environmental objectives for Svalbard state that wilderness areas should be maintained, and biodiversity should be preserved virtually unaffected by local activity. It is important to monitor the development in the number of individual travellers in notifiable areas, because the time series indicates that there now is traffic in more remote areas far away from the settlements in Svalbard.

Further reading