Most coastal birds migrating along the East Atlantic Flyway depart from the Wadden Sea to their breeding grounds in the Arctic at the end of May. At the same time of year we had already in 2025 traveled with a study group by ship from the Netherlands via Aberdeen, Shetland Islands, Jan Mayen and along the Greenland sea ice to Longyearbyen/Svalbard. At the end of our trip to Longyearbyen, we happened to witness the visit of the Norwegian king, who was there to mark the historic end of coal mining in the area. This gave us a good reason to look back 30 years, when a coalition of nature conservation organisations and tourism companies, through their commitment against the planned road to the coal mine in Svea, 80 km away, not only prevented the road from being built, but also brought about the creation of several new national parks.
This story is the first so-called LT&C-Example of the organisation Linking Tourism & Conservation (now ETE -LT&C), which was founded after this conservation success, and is an example of how tourism can support the creation or further development of protected areas.
Following the tradition of LT&C, we still organise study tours specifically focused on such LT&C-Examples in order to encourage people to learn from them and replicate them elsewhere.
With this in mind, we are repeating the study tour to Svalbard in 2026 with our partner, Oceanwide Expeditions (OEX). The tour can be started either in Vlissingen in the Netherlands or in Aberdeen, Scotland, and leads via Fair Isle, Jan Mayen and along the Greenland ice sheet to Longyearbyen. The tour can also be combined with an additional leg along the northwest coast of Svalbard. Details about the trip, the ship m/v Ortelius and prices can be found under OTL01C-26 on the OEX website. If you would like to receive an additional 20% discount on the prices quoted there, please contact us first for further details:
