If we want to protect endangered species from extinction, then protecting their habitats with a legal protection is one of the most important steps to achieve a sustainable and breeding population of the threatened species. It is of course not a full solution that works for every single species, but it is still a very important process on the journey to conserving endangered species.
A few days ago the Norwegian government agreed to protect 36 new areas of ecological importance. All of these areas has species that were considered threatened with extinction, and hopefully this protection will help conserve these species. The newly protected areas are now safe from logging, but sustainable hunting for certain animal species is still allowed. The species might not be the most exciting ones, and we are talking about insects and plants, not large animals that roam in huge areas, but these smaller species are often very important for certain ecosystem services.
The newly protected areas cover a total of 74 square kilometers, so it is not extremely big. However, this is handpicked areas that for some reason have a very interesting ecology, so it is not just any random 74 square kilometer without anything of importance. 80 % of this area is productive forest, which is very sought after by loggers, so getting this type of protection is definitely stopping the areas from being logged.
Sandbukta-Østnestangen nature reserve, another protected area in Norway that is roughly the same size as many of the newly protected areas. Image by Wikimedia user Bjoertvedt, posted with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Can we reach the 10 % goal?
Norway has put a goal of protecting at least 10 % of all our forest areas, but so far we have only managed to protect roughly 3 %. This means we have a very long way before we hit the goal, and despite some good news such as this one, getting to 10 % within the next 20 years seems unlikely. Norway is a big country with a lot of forest, so adding 74 additional square kilometers is making a huge difference, but it all adds up.
Thanks for reading
If you want to learn more, your best bet is to learn Norwegian and see the official government statement.