Start-up announcement for rolling out the park plan for Nærøyfjorden World Heritage Park

Nærøyfjorden The World Heritage Park's most important management document, the Park Plan , was last updated in 2014: The World Heritage Park has now initiated a process to renew the plan.

A project plan has been drawn up for the work. The following is said about the objective for the rolling ring:

" The basic objectives for Nærøyfjorden Regional Park must remain firm. It is a stated goal from the park management to revitalize the park in a broad sense, while still maintaining the direction chosen in previous plans. The rollout will also update the plan's textual content to the current situation ."

Furthermore, it is a goal for the process itself to provide "... a revitalization of the founders' awareness of world heritage and of the park, and a revitalization of the partners' anchoring in, use of, and creation for the park ."

A project plan for the process was approved by the board of directors. Nærøyfjorden World Heritage Park in the board meeting on 23.06.2023. Here it was also decided that the board's working group, which consists of 3 board members including the leader, will be the project's steering group . The plan will be the focus of the upcoming Park Meeting . In addition to this, a reference group will be established consisting of representatives from founders, partners, the park administration and the protected area management. A professional advisory group has also been established to support the work, consisting of Hanne Lykkja (advisor visitor management, Nordland County Council), Kristian Bjørnstad (general manager, Norwegian Parks) and Morten Clemetsen (researcher in landscape and urban development, NMBU). In order to involve the municipalities, also at a political level, we will plan to visit the new municipal councils during the autumn. The World Heritage Park has engaged Siri W. Bøthun from Sogn Nature Management as project manager. Bøthun will work in close collaboration with the park management.

The work will go through 3 phases, where arrangements are made for the participation of founders, partners and collaboration partners in all phases. The process is planned to be carried out from summer 2023 to spring 2024, as follows:

1. Evaluation of the current plan, time period: July – October:

´ Questionnaire survey

´ Dialogues

´ Discussion in reference group

´ Project note "Evaluation"

2. Preparation of plan proposals, time period: October to February:

´ Using the evaluation note

´ Visit to the municipal council

´ Workshop in the Park meeting

´ Discussions in the reference group

´ Presentation for the steering group

3. Høyring, time period: March:

´ Dispatch of hearing submissions to all parties

´ Assessment of input, incorporation of changes

It is a goal to get a decision on the new plan during the month of April.

In the near future, selected representatives will be invited to sit in the reference group. This group will meet twice during the process, once during the evaluation and once in connection with the preparation of the plan proposal. 

All partners will otherwise have the opportunity to provide input into the new plan on three occasions; in the survey early in the process, during the Park meeting in autumn 2023, and during the hearing of planning proposals in spring 2024. The survey will be an important part of the evaluation, which will be sent out to all partners, including the founders. We hope as many people as possible will take the time to answer this, and that some of those who answer are willing to be interviewed to fill in the picture.

Everyone is welcome to bring questions and input directly to the park manager or to the project manager along the way. We hope that as many people as possible will get involved, so that we get a timely and good management document in the years to come.

Best regards

Erling Oppheim Siri Wølneberg Bøthun

Daily manager Project manager

Nærøyfjorden World Heritage Park Sogn Nature Management AS

erling@naroyfjorden.no siri@sbnatur.no