In Decem­ber it emer­ged that the Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment has plans to nomi­na­te the Spits­ber­gen archi­pe­la­go (at least part­ly) for the UNESCO world heri­ta­ge list. Poli­ti­cal par­ties and repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of the local popu­la­ti­ons are spec­ti­cal. Local poli­ti­ci­ans in Lon­gye­ar­by­en said they would pre­fer such initia­ti­ves to come from the local popu­la­ti­on, rather than the govern­ment in Oslo, which is often too far away from real life in the arc­tic.

It is also belie­ved that a nomi­na­ti­on for the UNESCO world heri­ta­ge list is seen as a poli­ti­cal exch­an­ge for a new mine, which has recent­ly been announ­ced to be per­mit­ted. Poli­ti­ci­ans in Lon­gye­ar­by­en fear that the minis­try of the envi­ron­ment is loo­king for a poli­ti­cal balan­ce for the new mine at the pos­si­ble expen­se of locals and tou­rists, who may face new rest­ric­tions which are often bene­fi­ci­al for Oslo poli­ti­ci­ans rather than the envi­ron­ment.

Source: NRK (Nor­we­gi­an TV borad­cas­ter)