Geographical
Protecting the land of the Vikings
On a freezing Tuesday evening in January 2004, a beach hotel in a remote part of Denmark was beginning to fill up with men, women and children from all over the surrounding area. As they took their seats, a sense of anticipation hung in the air.
After more than four decades of discussion, the Danish government was finally in a position to establish the boundaries of its first national park and had directed ministers to secure the support and close involvement of the people living in and around the proposed areas. In the municipality of Thisted in western Jutland, Ejner Froekjaer, the mayor of Hanstholm, searched the faces of some of the 400 local residents assembled before him and, recognising farmers, local businesspeople, members of wildlife protection societies, hunters, heritage experts, environmentalists and many others, he took a deep breath.
‘That first meeting was excellent,’ remembers Ib Nord Nielsen, a ranger for the Danish Forestry and Nature Agency (DFNA). ‘The mayor did a great job because he understood how to bring so many different people together rather then to divide them [on the issue of establishing the national park boundary]. He opened that meeting by saying, “I am walking in the middle of the road to a great opportunity here and you are all on either side of this road. Before we can move forward, you all need to come up and walk with me.”’
Now, following a lengthy process that ensured that the interests of all those at the grassroots were represented through a specially developed committee, the boundary around an area of land squeezed between a lowland fjord and the North Sea has been declared Denmark’s first national park. At a ceremony attended by almost 3,000 people last August, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen heralded a new era of nature protection as he declared 22 August 2008 ‘a milestone for Danish nature’.
Denmark’s last wilderness
A coastal strip of land wrapped around the northwestern shoulder of Jutland – the peninsula that adjoins Germany – Thy (pronounced ‘tew’) National Park encompasses sand dunes, heathland and lakes in its 244 square kilometres. Much of the land remains totally uncultivated, and this fact, combined with the constant attack from thundering waves and strong winds from the North Sea, gives the area a wonderfully wild and windswept appearance.
‘Only in Thy do we have true wilderness areas,’ says Nielsen. ‘All the rest of Denmark is cultivated, while here, only 300–400 hectares within the boundary is cultivated land. To us, it was obvious why Thy should be the first national park.’
Much of Thy is considered so precious and wild that it isn’t open to the public at all. The 4,000-hectare Hanstholm Reserve, for example, which lies just south of the small harbour town of the same name, contains internationally important lakes, meadows and other wetland areas that are permanently closed to the public. Twice a year, millions of migratory birds gather to rest and feed here en route to and from their breeding grounds, and otters are present year round.
But what is most striking about the park is the sand dunes. ‘Denmark is probably the European champion for coastal dunes because we have quite a lot of them,’ says Jakob Harrekilde Jensen, a DFNA project manager. ‘Sand drift has created dunes almost all the way along the [North Sea] coast; you can find them in France, Holland, Germany and Norway, but here we have quite a lot of a specific type of landscape called sub-Atlantic coastal dune heath.’
Aside from the abundant birdlife, most people come here for the beaches. The power of the North Sea when the Atlantic swell from Iceland and the Faroe Islands is driven toward the coast by a northwesterly breeze makes this part of the country ideal for surfing and windsurfing. ‘There is only one place better than Klitmoller [one of the coastal villages] to surf and that’s Hawaii,’ says Neilsen.
In the not-so-distant past, the coastline here served an entirely different purpose, forming part of Nazi Germany’s 5,000-kilometre Atlantic Wall coastal defence, which ran from southern France to Norway. Several well-preserved Second World War fortifications can still be seen, not least the Hanstholm II battery, which was manned by 3,000 troops and is the most extensive battlement from this era found in Northern Europe.
With a number of areas boasting such obvious appeal, potential for tourism and importance for wildlife, you can’t help but wonder why Denmark is the last EU country to secure its natural heritage in national parks. According to the DFNA, the answer lies in Denmark’s long history and democratic political process.
Worth the wait
Most of Denmark has been shaped by human hand in some way or another and historians have uncovered evidence of agriculture dating back to 3900 BC – long before the Vikings. This long history has ensured that few continuous areas of wilderness survived into the 21st century.
‘Compared to the parks established in the USA, Canada and Australia, in Europe, we have been much more intensive in our land use, we have this long, long history, and we have a cultural landscape, where the nature content is dependant on human activity,’ says Jensen. ‘So for us, these areas contain some of our most important wildlife.’
The idea of protecting these areas was first examined more than 40 years ago as part of a push to define a national conservation policy, but any concrete plans faced significant resistance, particularly from green-interest groups and local authorities afraid that defining particular areas for nature protection could endanger other, arguably equally valuable, areas that fell outside the boundaries.
The deadlock was eventually broken in 1999, when the OECD analysed Denmark’s nature policies and made a recommendation to the government to establish a network of national parks. This kick-started a series of public meetings that ultimately secured the future of some of the most interesting and important parts of Denmark for generations to come.
‘In 2002, the Danish government took the initiative to establish Denmark’s first parks, and the minister at the time was very concerned about public involvement – he wanted it to be very much a bottom-up process, saying: “There will be no national parks if the local people aren’t for it, so go and ask them and use their local knowledge to get a local anchoring”,’ Jensen explains.
Four more national parks are due to open over the next two or three years (see Parking areas: Denmark’s next natural gems) and, like Thy, each will have a chairman appointed by Troels Lund Poulsen, Danish minister for the environment and, as far as possible, all board members will have close connections to the designated area.
‘The establishment of our national parks has [entailed] the largest participation of the public we have ever had in Danish nature protection,’ says Jensen. ‘Over the course of several years, there have been thousands of meetings, with several hundred people in each area giving up their time in the evenings and weekends to get this concept off the ground. We couldn’t have done it without this level of support. We are all looking forward to officially designating the next four parks.’
Parking areas:
Denmark’s next natural gems
Mols Bjerge
National Park
(August/September 2009)
Formed during the last ice age when meltwater cut hills, hollows and lakes as it made its way to the sea, the ‘mountains of Mols’ form only a fraction of the proposed 180-square-kilometre park, which will also contain heath, bogs, pastures, beaches, marine habitats and picturesque villages
Skjern Å National Park
(2010)
Roughly covering the River Skjern’s floodplain, this 248-square-kilometre park in western Jutland will take in extensive wetland areas, including Northern Europe’s largest natural regeneration project, the Skjern Marsh
Kongernes Nordsjaelland
National Park
(Autumn 2010/11)
This park (boundaries still to be defined) will be on the island of Zealand in an area dominated by deciduous woodlands and the largest lakes in Denmark. There are also several royal palaces in the area
Vadehavet National Park, Western Jutland coast
(SUMMER/Autumn 2010)
At 1,400 square kilometres, Vadehavet will be the largest of Denmark’s new parks, encompassing vast marshlands and tidal flats on Jutland’s southwest coast that provide a muddy refuge for between ten and 12 million migratory birds
Co-ordinates: Denmark
When to go
Of all the Scandinavian countries, Denmark’s climate is the least extreme and is more or less the same wherever you go. The best time to visit is during the warmer summer months, when it’s sunny and clear and the landscape is at its prettiest. July is the warmest month, with temperatures averaging 20°C, which is presumably what motivates most Danes to take their holidays then.
How to get there
Denmark is less than two hours away by air, or an overnight cruise away by ferry. Several airlines fly between Denmark and the UK, including Cimber Sterling (www.cimber.dk), which offers return flights twice a day from London Gatwick to Copenhagen, and once a day from Newcastle from £75 per person. DFDS Seaways (www.dfdsseaways.co.uk) serves the Harwich–Esbjerg route every other day and costs £222 for a car and two people.
Further information
To learn more about Denmark’s new national parks, visit www.danmarksnationalparker.dk. For travel advice, visit www.visitdenmark.com.
April 2009
After more than four decades of discussion, the Danish government was finally in a position to establish the boundaries of its first national park and had directed ministers to secure the support and close involvement of the people living in and around the proposed areas. In the municipality of Thisted in western Jutland, Ejner Froekjaer, the mayor of Hanstholm, searched the faces of some of the 400 local residents assembled before him and, recognising farmers, local businesspeople, members of wildlife protection societies, hunters, heritage experts, environmentalists and many others, he took a deep breath.
‘That first meeting was excellent,’ remembers Ib Nord Nielsen, a ranger for the Danish Forestry and Nature Agency (DFNA). ‘The mayor did a great job because he understood how to bring so many different people together rather then to divide them [on the issue of establishing the national park boundary]. He opened that meeting by saying, “I am walking in the middle of the road to a great opportunity here and you are all on either side of this road. Before we can move forward, you all need to come up and walk with me.”’
Now, following a lengthy process that ensured that the interests of all those at the grassroots were represented through a specially developed committee, the boundary around an area of land squeezed between a lowland fjord and the North Sea has been declared Denmark’s first national park. At a ceremony attended by almost 3,000 people last August, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen heralded a new era of nature protection as he declared 22 August 2008 ‘a milestone for Danish nature’.
Start the slideshow (9 pictures)
Denmark’s last wilderness
A coastal strip of land wrapped around the northwestern shoulder of Jutland – the peninsula that adjoins Germany – Thy (pronounced ‘tew’) National Park encompasses sand dunes, heathland and lakes in its 244 square kilometres. Much of the land remains totally uncultivated, and this fact, combined with the constant attack from thundering waves and strong winds from the North Sea, gives the area a wonderfully wild and windswept appearance.
‘Only in Thy do we have true wilderness areas,’ says Nielsen. ‘All the rest of Denmark is cultivated, while here, only 300–400 hectares within the boundary is cultivated land. To us, it was obvious why Thy should be the first national park.’
Much of Thy is considered so precious and wild that it isn’t open to the public at all. The 4,000-hectare Hanstholm Reserve, for example, which lies just south of the small harbour town of the same name, contains internationally important lakes, meadows and other wetland areas that are permanently closed to the public. Twice a year, millions of migratory birds gather to rest and feed here en route to and from their breeding grounds, and otters are present year round.
But what is most striking about the park is the sand dunes. ‘Denmark is probably the European champion for coastal dunes because we have quite a lot of them,’ says Jakob Harrekilde Jensen, a DFNA project manager. ‘Sand drift has created dunes almost all the way along the [North Sea] coast; you can find them in France, Holland, Germany and Norway, but here we have quite a lot of a specific type of landscape called sub-Atlantic coastal dune heath.’
Aside from the abundant birdlife, most people come here for the beaches. The power of the North Sea when the Atlantic swell from Iceland and the Faroe Islands is driven toward the coast by a northwesterly breeze makes this part of the country ideal for surfing and windsurfing. ‘There is only one place better than Klitmoller [one of the coastal villages] to surf and that’s Hawaii,’ says Neilsen.
In the not-so-distant past, the coastline here served an entirely different purpose, forming part of Nazi Germany’s 5,000-kilometre Atlantic Wall coastal defence, which ran from southern France to Norway. Several well-preserved Second World War fortifications can still be seen, not least the Hanstholm II battery, which was manned by 3,000 troops and is the most extensive battlement from this era found in Northern Europe.
With a number of areas boasting such obvious appeal, potential for tourism and importance for wildlife, you can’t help but wonder why Denmark is the last EU country to secure its natural heritage in national parks. According to the DFNA, the answer lies in Denmark’s long history and democratic political process.
Worth the wait
Most of Denmark has been shaped by human hand in some way or another and historians have uncovered evidence of agriculture dating back to 3900 BC – long before the Vikings. This long history has ensured that few continuous areas of wilderness survived into the 21st century.
‘Compared to the parks established in the USA, Canada and Australia, in Europe, we have been much more intensive in our land use, we have this long, long history, and we have a cultural landscape, where the nature content is dependant on human activity,’ says Jensen. ‘So for us, these areas contain some of our most important wildlife.’
The idea of protecting these areas was first examined more than 40 years ago as part of a push to define a national conservation policy, but any concrete plans faced significant resistance, particularly from green-interest groups and local authorities afraid that defining particular areas for nature protection could endanger other, arguably equally valuable, areas that fell outside the boundaries.
The deadlock was eventually broken in 1999, when the OECD analysed Denmark’s nature policies and made a recommendation to the government to establish a network of national parks. This kick-started a series of public meetings that ultimately secured the future of some of the most interesting and important parts of Denmark for generations to come.
‘In 2002, the Danish government took the initiative to establish Denmark’s first parks, and the minister at the time was very concerned about public involvement – he wanted it to be very much a bottom-up process, saying: “There will be no national parks if the local people aren’t for it, so go and ask them and use their local knowledge to get a local anchoring”,’ Jensen explains.
Four more national parks are due to open over the next two or three years (see Parking areas: Denmark’s next natural gems) and, like Thy, each will have a chairman appointed by Troels Lund Poulsen, Danish minister for the environment and, as far as possible, all board members will have close connections to the designated area.
‘The establishment of our national parks has [entailed] the largest participation of the public we have ever had in Danish nature protection,’ says Jensen. ‘Over the course of several years, there have been thousands of meetings, with several hundred people in each area giving up their time in the evenings and weekends to get this concept off the ground. We couldn’t have done it without this level of support. We are all looking forward to officially designating the next four parks.’
Parking areas:
Denmark’s next natural gems
Mols Bjerge
National Park
(August/September 2009)
Formed during the last ice age when meltwater cut hills, hollows and lakes as it made its way to the sea, the ‘mountains of Mols’ form only a fraction of the proposed 180-square-kilometre park, which will also contain heath, bogs, pastures, beaches, marine habitats and picturesque villages
Skjern Å National Park
(2010)
Roughly covering the River Skjern’s floodplain, this 248-square-kilometre park in western Jutland will take in extensive wetland areas, including Northern Europe’s largest natural regeneration project, the Skjern Marsh
Kongernes Nordsjaelland
National Park
(Autumn 2010/11)
This park (boundaries still to be defined) will be on the island of Zealand in an area dominated by deciduous woodlands and the largest lakes in Denmark. There are also several royal palaces in the area
Vadehavet National Park, Western Jutland coast
(SUMMER/Autumn 2010)
At 1,400 square kilometres, Vadehavet will be the largest of Denmark’s new parks, encompassing vast marshlands and tidal flats on Jutland’s southwest coast that provide a muddy refuge for between ten and 12 million migratory birds
Co-ordinates: Denmark
When to go
Of all the Scandinavian countries, Denmark’s climate is the least extreme and is more or less the same wherever you go. The best time to visit is during the warmer summer months, when it’s sunny and clear and the landscape is at its prettiest. July is the warmest month, with temperatures averaging 20°C, which is presumably what motivates most Danes to take their holidays then.
How to get there
Denmark is less than two hours away by air, or an overnight cruise away by ferry. Several airlines fly between Denmark and the UK, including Cimber Sterling (www.cimber.dk), which offers return flights twice a day from London Gatwick to Copenhagen, and once a day from Newcastle from £75 per person. DFDS Seaways (www.dfdsseaways.co.uk) serves the Harwich–Esbjerg route every other day and costs £222 for a car and two people.
Further information
To learn more about Denmark’s new national parks, visit www.danmarksnationalparker.dk. For travel advice, visit www.visitdenmark.com.
April 2009