The Icelandic Environment Association (Landvernd) filed a complaint to the Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources August last year, requesting that construction of a new hotel in Kerlingarfjöll mountains, central highlands, be put on hold until a detailed environmental impact assessment has been made.
Read more:Kerlingarfjöll mountain range: red rhyolite mountains, ice and hot springs
The local district council is unhappy with Landvernd’s actions, maintaining that planning guidelines and rules have been followed every step of the way. Halting the project will cause millions of ISK in losses.
The 120-room hotel in question is to be constructed on a plot of land where old ski huts stand. Construction work is scheduled to be done in three phases. However, Hrunamannahreppur district council agreed to allow the construction of the first part to go ahead without an environmental impact assessment being made. The area was only to be assessed before the construction of the final two stages was to begin.
Landvernd’s chairman, Snorri Baldursson, says the organisation was forced to take action. “It’s crazy to skip the environmental impact assessment before construction of the first section begins and then have it assessed for the final two stages. By then it will be too late. This needs to be done properly from the get go,” he told Fréttablaðið newspaper.
The Kerlingarfjöll area is a 1,477 metre (4,846 ft) high mountain range located in the central highlands. The area is part of a massive tuya volcano system and used to be a popular summer ski resort from the early 1960’s and until the late 1990’s.
In February, it was revealed that the Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources, which oversees environmental affairs, intends to turn the area in the central highlands into a conservation area.
The Icelandic Environment Association (Landvernd) filed a complaint to the Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources August last year, requesting that construction of a new hotel in Kerlingarfjöll mountains, central highlands, be put on hold until a detailed environmental impact assessment has been made.
Read more:Kerlingarfjöll mountain range: red rhyolite mountains, ice and hot springs
The local district council is unhappy with Landvernd’s actions, maintaining that planning guidelines and rules have been followed every step of the way. Halting the project will cause millions of ISK in losses.
The 120-room hotel in question is to be constructed on a plot of land where old ski huts stand. Construction work is scheduled to be done in three phases. However, Hrunamannahreppur district council agreed to allow the construction of the first part to go ahead without an environmental impact assessment being made. The area was only to be assessed before the construction of the final two stages was to begin.
Landvernd’s chairman, Snorri Baldursson, says the organisation was forced to take action. “It’s crazy to skip the environmental impact assessment before construction of the first section begins and then have it assessed for the final two stages. By then it will be too late. This needs to be done properly from the get go,” he told Fréttablaðið newspaper.
The Kerlingarfjöll area is a 1,477 metre (4,846 ft) high mountain range located in the central highlands. The area is part of a massive tuya volcano system and used to be a popular summer ski resort from the early 1960’s and until the late 1990’s.
In February, it was revealed that the Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources, which oversees environmental affairs, intends to turn the area in the central highlands into a conservation area.
