There is a long way from Sigdal to Krødsherad in Montreal, Canada, but last week something happened in this city that could have major consequences in Norway and even in our local environment. The keyword is natural diversity. COPI5 was the name of the major United Nations conference on natural diversity and it was decided that 30% of the world’s land and sea areas should be given some form of conservation status.

“Cabin construction and roads are the worst,” Climate and Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) told E24 in Montreal. This is going to be a guiding principle for Norwegian policy as Norway tries to fulfill its part of the deal. It will hurt a lot. It can become very difficult to establish new cabin areas. Commentator Halvor Hegtun at Aftenposten summarized the conference as follows:

“There will continue to be broad political support to save species diversity in Norwegian nature. Nobody wants to break up the mountain fox, the hubbro, the giant salamander or the pygmy goose. But it will work if big projects roads are to be canceled or suspended. It will also go down badly in wide circles if the impression spreads that people will no longer be allowed to get a cab. Municipalities struggling to maintain their population will also have great difficulty accepting a strangulation construction of chalets.

In other words; here is the seed of much discord.

Another thing is the major road projects that are in progress. A huge amount of terrain needs to be blown and changed for the cars to arrive. If Norway is to fulfill its part of the deal, there simply needs to be a lot less large-scale intervention in untouched nature.

In 2010, the average size of a cabin in Norway was 96 square meters. By 2021, it had spread around the “waist” and was estimated at 105 square meters. The roads leading to the cottage fields became wider and wider. Infrastructure such as water, drainage, electricity and network cables have to be provided, resulting in encroachment on nature.

For many peripheral municipalities, the construction of cottages has been absolutely essential to the basis of life. Craftsmanship is important. Excavators, drilling rigs and trucks hummed day after day. Many have earned very well from the development of cottages. The cabin owners made sure to keep shops, gas stations and restaurants alive. In many places, cottagers contribute property taxes, which are welcome income into depleted municipal coffers, and provide services in the form of care for the elderly and schools. But now it could be worse. Much worse.

Existing cabins will of course not be demolished, but it can be difficult to get new ones approved. Aftenposten points out that only a few days after the Montreal agreement, an effective stop was put at the motorway bridge planned by Nye Veier over the Lågen delta in Lillehammer. The delta where Lågen meets Mjøsa received nature reserve status in 1990. The state administrator granted a waiver from conservation regulations to speed up development from the E6 north to Trondheim.

Politicians fear that we are impoverishing our planet too much. Behind them are strong environmental protection forces that are on the rise. They want nature’s abundant life – everything from what we can see to what we can’t see with the naked eye – to continue to have living conditions. This is why the Minister of Environmental Protection, Espen Barth Eide, points out that the eye of the needle for new transport projects and new cabin areas will become considerably narrower.

The consolation or worry – depending on how you view the situation – is that such international agreements tend not to be acted upon. But can we really point the finger at deforestation in the Amazon and at the same time open up new big shack fields with gigantic buildings, garages and wide roads almost like avenues in the mountains?

In any case, the political climate will probably make things more difficult and it will certainly become a topic locally in many places and will be hotly debated, especially during the next municipal election campaign.