ICELAND is turning into a desert, claims its Soil Conservation Service.
Although the country is covered in snow for most of the year, overgrazing of
windswept pastures by sheep and horses during the brief summer is causing dust
storms, soil erosion and the formation of “cold deserts”.
This year Iceland launched a five-year soil conservation programme to
persuade farmers to manage their pastures better. But the root of the problem is
deforestation. “Iceland has lost almost all its tree cover,” says Andres Arnalds
of the Soil Conservation Service near Hella.
