After The Copenhagen meeting (December 2009) on climate change, The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) made a list of 10 species which all highlight the way climate change is adversely affecting marine, terrestrial and freshwater habitats. One of these species, that have been termed flaghsips, is the Arctic Fox. According to the IUCN review, the Arctic Fox is among the species destined to be hardest hit by climate change....
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1% dedicates it´s February blog to the three Icelandic members of 1%, all located in Westfjords of Iceland. They mention "our" arctic foxes, the adventures tours of Borea Adventures and the new fly-fishing wheel company that just joined 1%. In Isafjordur, the sun doesn´t reach over the mountain tops for 2 months and thus, at 25th of January, when the sun reaches the town, everyone bakes the famous sun-pancakes to celebrate the sun. The blog is decorated with a beautiful photo of arctic fox pups in Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, from our web page, taken by Tobias Mennle.
All this and more on the 1% web page  

he Danish nature photographer and Canon Ambassador, Uri Golman, will soon embark on a new and exciting project in Iceland. The Arctic Fox Centre (AFC) in Iceland and Uri have just signed a contract on a project on the life of arctic foxes where Uri will serve as the centre's official photographer due to his experience in photographing in the arctic and sub arctic regions. 

During the time of the project, which will mostly take place in the remote Nature Reserve of Hornstrandir in The Westfjords of Iceland, Uri will spend periods of 2010 and 2011 in the field in the company of arctic foxes in their natural surroundings and in all seasons....
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Today we had five volunteers working in Eyrardalur, the future house of the Arctic Fox Centre. These were Etienne, Alexander, Alan, Lindsay and Jennifer, all students in Coastal management at the Westfjords University Centre in Isafjordur.
They worked in sorting out and cleaning the original panel boards from the house, which was built before 1900. By cleaning and preparing the panel boards, they make it possible for the carpenders to re-use them and that gives the old house it´s old charm again.

After a four hours work, which makes it 20 working hours altogether, the team went to Dagbjört, our board member, for a delicious fish soup and bread, followed by coffee and chocolate cake - what a treat.

It is valuable for us to get a help like this and we hope to see more volunteers around in future weeks.

See more photos on www.melrakki.is

Last week The Arctic Fox Centre joined whale and seal friends from The Wild North project, in a collaboration with IFAW, on a meeting with the Minister of Environment as well as the Minister of Tourism - together we form "Three pearls of the North" an exciting project ..

more of that later here on www.melrakki.is

In 2001 Yvon Chouinard the founder and owner of Patagonia and Craig Matthews the owner of Blue Ribbon Flies started an organization they called "1% for the Planet". This is an alliance of businesses pledging to donate at least 1% of sales towards active efforts to protect and restore our natural environment. Both of these companies had actively supported grassroot environmental organizations and they shared their personal belief that a healthy natural world is essential for humankind´s survival.

"1% for the Planet" exists to build and support an alliance of businesses financially committed to creating a healthy planet and the way it works is that each member company contributes 1 percent of its annual sales as donations to non-profit environmental organizations. Members choose from a list of groups approved by and registered with "1% for the Planet".

Today there are around 1200 members of this exclusive alliance and 2000 non-profit environmental groups listed and to date the alliance has initiated over $42 million in environmental giving.

We are very proud and happy to be able to announce that Borea Adventures has been accepted as member and The Arctic Fox Center has been approved as a non-profit group. These are the first Icelandic participants. We believe that membership in "1% for the Planet" is a clear indicator of our sincere commitment to sustainability.

 

more info: 1% for the planet

and Borea Adventures

 

Today was the first day the sun managed to shine onto us in Sudavik this year. We were also visited by a group of nice people, students in Coastal management at the University Center of Westfjords in Isafjordur. They were offering us a hand in rebuilding the house and constructing the exhibition. We are glad to accept their help in any way, nice to know that there is people out there willing to lend us a hand. Some of them are well experienced in woodwork, others have done this and that before and can become quite useful for us in the designing and setting up the exhibition and The Arctic Fox Café.

The Norwegian tv (NRK) filmed scientists from Th Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) who work on a breeding program for arctic foxes which is an endangered species in Norway and Sweden. The result was broadcasted in October 2009 within the program Ut i naturen. There you can see the foxes at the breeding station in Sætrefjell station, where they kept 5 fox pairs in huge fences and monitor the inner site of their dens by a screen, even on  internet.
When the pups grew adult, they were radio-collared, tagged and released up in the mountains.
The film can be seen here note it is in Norwegian but the foxes "speak" a universal language 

The Arctic Fox Centre wishes you all a happy new year and welcome to our exhibition and guided tours next summer. 
We are grateful for all the support and collaboration last year, both financially and physically - special thanks to the volunteers in the field research, photographers and film makers.
The new year is full of exciting projects, building up the exhibition, meeting the foxes and opening the house for everyone on the 13th of June !!

The Arctic Fox Centre sends you all the best wishes for Merry Christmas
and a happy new year

We are grateful for the support and goodwill during this year and
hope to see you all at our exhibition in Sudavik, and guided fox tours, next summer