Our Story
A Vision Planted Decades Ago
“The story of Skógar is a story of collective effort by a small community learning about the science of reforestation, and the many qualities and skills needed to sustain a project over many decades.”
It started with one man, Jochum Eggertsson, who was ahead of his time and had a vision of the true “needs of the age” in which we live.
Jochum Eggertsson was one of the first people in Iceland to become a Baháʼí. He was the nephew of Matthías Jochumsson, one of the country’s best loved poets and the author of the national anthem of Iceland.
History
Reclaiming an Ancestral Landscape
During the early 1950s Jochum decided to buy back the farmland Skógar in Þorskafjörður where his father and ten siblings, including Matthías Jochumsson, had been born, and where the family had lived for generations before losing the farm. Skógar, which is situated in the Westfjords in the north of Iceland, means ‘woods’, and Jochum was convinced that it was his mission to revive the woods which had covered the Fjord centuries earlier. During the early 1950s he started to plant trees in one corner of the land.
Although it was not well understood during the early 1950s, deforestation and soil erosion are, in fact, some of the most pressing and devastating anthropogenic environmental problems in Iceland. Since the early 1980s the Baháʼí community of Iceland has worked closely with local landowners and organizations in the fields of soil preservation and reforestation, as well as with the Icelandic Forest Service, an agency of the Ministry of the Environment.
Some 130,000 trees have been planted in Skógar since 2006. The continuity of the reforestation work over many decades has given the Baháʼí community a tremendous opportunity to collaborate with individuals, NGOs, government agencies and international organizations.
In September 2020 the Icelandic Forestry Association, a local NGO, selected a tree planted by Jochum as the Icelandic “Tree of the Year.” Representatives from various organizations attended a formal ceremony in Skógar and this was an opportunity to highlight the benefits of collaboration, shared learning and mutual support between countless like-minded individuals and organizations labouring in this area of work.
Key Milestones
1950s
Jochum Eggertsson purchases the ancestral farmland of Skógar and begins planting trees.
1980s
The Baháʼí community of Iceland begins formal collaboration with local landowners and the Icelandic Forest Service.
2006
Systematic large-scale tree planting begins. Over 130,000 trees planted from this point forward.
2020
The Icelandic Forestry Association names a tree planted by Jochum as the Icelandic “Tree of the Year.”