Inscription: No doubt that Mika, Charlie and Anne were in Saltfjellet this summer.
Photo: Marius Guttormsen / NRK

The area around the Arctic Circle in Norwegian Lapland is cleared of tourist cairns, or piles of stones created by travelers as a form of marking their presence. Despite efforts to remove these cairns annually, they continue to reappear. The Norwegian researcher's hesitation to label tourists from EU countries as vandals or barbarians highlights the complex nature of this issue.

Every summer, up to 200,000 people, mainly from EU countries, visit the Arctic Circle Centre in Saltfjellet in Nordland. In the unique mountainous area, full of Sami cultural monuments, tourists are increasingly building rock pyramids, i.e. cairns, posting photo reports on social networks. Some bring equipment to attach metal plates with their names to the rocks.

The Arctic Circle Center is located in Saltfjellet National Park at an altitude of 680 meters above sea level. Here, tourists build small rock pyramids or paint their names on the rocks during their visit, which is strictly prohibited by the rules of visiting protected natural areas.

The area around the Arctic Circle Center is a landscape protection zone aimed to protect the natural environment.

We now have huge wounds in the original natural landscape, says Elias Andersson, CEO of the Arctic Circle Center.

"What used to be green vegetation has now turned into stone and sand"
Photo: Marius Eriksen Guttormsen / NRK

In the areas where the pyramids are most intensively built, only sand and stone remain, and the vegetation has been completely trampled by those eager to immortalize their names. Prioritizing their own desire for personal immortality over the preservation of nature, tourists coming from the "cultural" countries of the European Union and Great Britain drill holes in the stones with cordless drills and attach metal plates with their names to the rocks.

Saltfjellet is also home to the Sami cultural environment, which has preserved layer after layer of cultural relics for several thousand years. This area is considered the oldest and most important Sami cultural heritage area south of Finnmark.

We have examples of how stones from 500-year-old Sami hearths have been dug up to build cairns, says Andersson.

Despite the efforts of the Arctic Circle administration to prevent cairn construction, tourists continue to build them, and they reappear quickly after being torn down. Andersson notes that this new phenomenon has emerged recently. For some visitors, building cairns is not enough:

Now they are also making names out of stones, Andersson says.

In Saltfjellet National Park, 680 metres above sea level, is the Arctic Circle Centre. There, tourists build stone cairns or write their names on the stones. Photo: Marius Guttormsen / NRK

A Danish couple who visited Saltfjellet this summer left a small message of congratulations on a stone. Unfortunately, the photo of the vandalism was removed from the article, as was the photo of the metal plate screwed to the rock with the name of the person who did it.

Åsa Grahn, a tourism expert and Associate Professor at the University of Stavanger, suggests that tourists who build cairns in the Arctic Circle are not intentionally engaging in vandalism, but rather experiencing a moral disconnect when they are away from home.

People want to live a different life than they do at home. They paid a high price for a dream holiday that they are sure to remember as the best. If that means building cairns or collecting rocks from the best beaches, then they do it, says Grahn. They do not think about the impact their actions have on the environment and the people who live there.

Despite attempts to demolish the cairns built by tourists, they have been rebuilt just as quickly.

Truls Engström from the Norwegian Hotel College at the University of Stavanger holds a PhD in Psychology. He believes that social media has increased people's need to document where they are and what they are doing.

Many people live their lives on social media. They depend on people watching and following you. Then you need to do something that will make as many people follow you as possible, Engström says. On the other hand, if you are on holiday and only visit a place once, some people leave their ethics and morals at home. Arctic Circle Centre CEO Elias Andersson admits that the problem of cairn building is getting worse every year.

There are more cairns this year than ever before, he says.

Andersson says the centre has no control over what tourists do and is calling for more informative signs in more languages:

We demolish the cairns when we have the time and opportunity, even though we are not directly responsible for the national park.

In addition, Åsa Grahn believes that providing visitors with relevant information about the environmental impact of their actions may serve as a key to addressing the issue:

We all have a responsibility to combat unwanted behavior. When you are a guest in a foreign city or country, you should behave respectfully.

Based on materials: NRK  

The North Observer

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