Immediately upon hearing the news, we wrote a letter and email to Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir urging her to consider supporting and/or partnering with The Nauteyri Project. You can read the letter in Icelandic below.

Then, last week when the government held an unprecedented cabinet meeting up here in the Wild West, we got the chance to speak with Minister of Finance and Left Green party leader, Steingrímur J. Sigfússon face-to-face. He was very nice and made positive noises; but that was all.

What does all this mean? Well, so far we have had no response from the PM. But that is frankly to be expected. That is why we are publishing this article on our website. Is there any way you can help us get our message to the government? A simple letter or email could be enough.

In the meantime, you may be interested to hear that we have recently applied for another two grants: the Icelandic Innovation Centre’s Frumkvöðlastuðningur and the so-called Pokasjóður (which is a fund made up of all the 20kr charges for supermarket carrier bags). We were rejected for the Pokasjóður last year; but we hope that now being an official organisation with a kennitala and over a year’s hard work behind us will make the difference this time. Fingers crossed and sjö níu þrettán!

Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!

Here is the letter we sent the Prime Minister:

Ísafjörður, 14. mars 2011

Ágæti Forsætisráðherra,

Við viljum byrja á því að þakka þér fyrir að varpa ljósi á atvinnumál hér á Vestfjörðum og þau vandamál sem að okkur steðja hér á þessum fallegasta landshluta Íslands.

Vegna fréttar um að ríksstjórnin ætlar að stuðla að verkefnum hér fyrir vestan höfum við ákveðið að senda þér nokkrar línur varðandi The Nauteyri Project ses.

The Nauteyri Project er sjálfseignarstofnun sem hefur að leiðarljósi nákvæmlega sama markmið og ríkistjórnin þ.e svokallaða ‘triple bottom line economics’ sem felur í sér að stofnunin mun stuðla að bættu atvinnulífi, samfélagi og náttúru á Vestfjörðum.

Þrátt fyrir að The Nauteyri Project sé ungt þá hefur verkefnið okkar fengið góðar viðtökur af heimamönnum, bæjarstjórn og fólki víðsvegar í heiminum (t.a.m hefur Sally Magnusson komið til liðs við verkefnið okkar).

Stuðningur ríkisstjórnarinnar við The Nauteyri Project myndi passa mjög vel við þá aðgerð sem kynnti var sl. föstudag og myndi skipta gríðarlega miklu máli fyrir verkefnið. Fólksfækkun og skortur á fjölbreyttu atvinnulífi við Ísafjarðardjúp er vandamál sem við vonum að hægt sé að breyta og berjast við og á sama tíma komið Vestfjörðum á kortið með auknum ferðamannastraumi hingað vestur. Það er okkar markmið að endurbyggja svæðið, veita nýja þjónustu, afþreyingu, námskeið og aðstöðu fyrir ferðamenn sem og heimamenn – en allt þetta með því skýra markmiðið að vernda umhverfið, kynna og hvetja til sjálfbærni í daglegu lífi.

Eins og með allar sjálfseignarstofnanir er sammvinna nauðsýnleg svo markmiðum sé náð. Því teljum við að samvinna milli The Nauteyri Project ses. og Ríkisstjórnar Íslands mjög jákvætt skref fyrir Vestfirði.

Þar sem þetta bréf rúmar ekki allar okkar hugmyndir þá væri það okkur mikill heiður ef mögulega væri hægt að koma á fundi með ykkur er þið komið hingað vestur í næstu viku.

Ef áhugi er fyrir hendi getum við sent þér ýtarlegri lýsingar á hugmyndum og markmiðum okkar sem og bæklinga um Nauteyri Project ses.
Að lokum viðjum við minna á heimasíðu okkar www.nauteyri.com

Með bestu kveðjum

Alëx Elliott
Stjórnarformaður

Brad Houldcroft
varaformaður og gjaldkeri

(Til upplýsinga: Bréf þetta var líka sent í tölvupósti)

Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!

There are various reasons a Facebook page is better than a Facebook group and we’d like to invite you to join. The group will gradually be wound down and closed altogether just as soon as people join up to the page.

We know we’ve been sending out a lot of Facebook requests and stuff lately; but please don’t lose patience. There are no more coming up in the immediate future!

Join here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30543&id=148763421850508&saved#!/pages/The-Nauteyri-Project/148763421850508

Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!

The reason the ‘donate’ page disappeared for so long is that PayPal decided to conduct a comprehensive review — something which took a frustratingly, unacceptably long time; but which has at least definitively proven our credentials as a legitimate, donation-worthy organisation!

If you were kind enough to make a pledge while the donations page was available it 2010: have no fear, your money is safe and hasn’t gone anywhere. Once again we’d like to say “thank you”: thank you.

In other news, you can now reach this website by typing in www.nauteyri.com because we have set up a proper website address. This is exciting news (honestly) and will blossom into a whole new wonderful website before long. Keep your eyes peeled…

And in other other news, we are now a Cause on Facebook. So please do join our page on Causes (and also ‘like’ our Facebook page, if you haven’t already). And then there’s Twitter as well…so we’re pretty well-connected.

As you can see from the above nuggets of news, things are plodding along here at Nauteyri HQ. The enthusiasm is there and open support keeps pouring in from all sides. All we need now is more money. Hopefully the donations page will help. And our grant applications and contacts with business are also well underway.

That’s all for now – see you at Nauteyri.com again soon!

Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!

RÚV also reported on its evening news (just before the above-mentioned programme started) that the Westfjords has the lowest unemployment rate in Iceland; but added that that’s because the number of people moving away is also by far the highest. In fact, we have lost 1,300 people in 13 years and now have only 7,100 left in the entire region — this beautiful, culturally distinct and historically important part of the country with so much still in its favour.

The region’s problems are likely twofold: an over-reliance on fishing and an image problem. People think it is boring to live in the Westfjords and that the transport links are too poor. There is probably something to this last point, in all fairness. However, fully tarmacked roads and new bridges and tunnels mean that the trip to Reykjavik has never been quicker or safer and the winter snow ploughing means that any car can make the trip on most days of the year. And that’s not even mentioning the 35 minute flights that operate twice or more per day (weather permitting).

We feel that The Nauteyri Project can help to address both these problems. It has nothing to do with fishing and is anything but boring. It is our intention to bring people to the Westfjords all year round and to include locals in every way possible. Our interesting range of courses, lectures and exhibitions will hopefully make a noticeably positive difference to life in the area. And, of course, the more successful we are, the more jobs we can create.

If you speak Icelandic, check out the first seven-and-a-half minutes of this video.

Also, you might like to read this in Icelandic. An English translation is below:

“According to official figures, unemployment in the Westfjords is the lowest in the country. At the same time, people are leaving this region in the highest numbers.

“Þorsteinn Bragi Jónínuson moved away from Súðavík 13 years ago. Since then, the number of Westfjordians has dropped by 1,300. All the same, unemployment is the lowest there. The newest figures show that roughly 150 people are out of work in the Westfjords. But the number of residents keeps on falling. Those who move away have sometimes lost their jobs, or move away to study and never come back again.

“Þorsteinn says he would love to get a good job in the Westfjords with similar wages. In that case, his wife would need to have something to do there too. In those circumstances he would be very much willing to move home to Súðavík.

“Vífill Karlsson, economist, says that Westfjordians are probably wrestling with an image problem after everything that has happened. The distances are long and fewer Icelanders travel to the Westfjords each year. In those circumstances people build an opinion based on rumour and information gleaned from the media, he says.”

This is a shame, because what make the Westfjords such an exciting and refreshing place that everybody should consider visiting, are precisely the sort of things that will never make it into the news.

Þorsteinn later said, when interviewed for the Landinn programme, that what he misses about the Westfjords is how everybody can really be somebody there and if something needs doing, people just do it themselves. This is also a bad thing though, he reasoned; because if you don’t do things yourself, they simply don’t get done. The Nauteyri Project aims to be living proof of this ‘good-and-bad’ aspect of the Westfjords!

Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 7,600 times in 2010. That’s about 18 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 11 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 52 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 6mb. That’s about 4 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was March 11th with 1,726 views. The most popular post that day was About The Nauteyri Project.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were mbl.is, pressan.is, facebook.com, icelandreview.com, and strandir.is.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for nauteyri project, nauteyri, the nauteyri project, nauteyri.com, and dawn french in harry potter.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

About The Nauteyri Project March 2010

Read this first! All about The Nauteyri Project March 2010
2 comments

Welcome to the Nauteyri Project! March 2010
14 comments

Donate to The Nauteyri Project! March 2010
2 comments

And the fundraising begins! March 2010

Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!

In her letter it says that Dawn French read about The Nauteyri Project with great interest and that she sends her very best wishes and hopes The Project is a huge success.

The letter also states that “the only way Dawn can contribute is to spread the word about The Nauteyri Project”. But despite the inference, that is not disappointing – it is fantastic!

We here at Nauteyri H.Q. have always wanted to make The Project come to life with small contributions of all sorts from hundreds of different people and organisations — not only with the dedicated hard work of a hardcore few. It is with the small gestures from Dawn French, BBC journalist Sally Magnusson, and the many other folks who have already got involved that we will make The Nauteyri Project the huge success everyone wants it to be.

Dawn French is best-known for starring in and writing for the comedy sketch show French and Saunders with comedy partner Jennifer Saunders and also for playing the lead role of Geraldine Granger in the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley. She has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards and also won a Fellowship BAFTA along with Jennifer Saunders. In films, Dawn French has played The Fat Lady in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and in 2005 French provided the voice for the character Mrs Beaver in Disney and Walden Media’s film adaptation of C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!

The organisation is now called The Nauteyri Project ses. (with the ses. standing for “sjálfseignarstofnun”, or non-profit organisation).

The Nauteyri Project’s identity number is: 461010-1130.

This is great news which makes The Project totally legitimate in legal and business terms, as well as just social, environmental and ethical terms. Thanks for all the support so far – there will be another update very soon!

Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!

As an Icelandic speaker with well-known family ties to Iceland, Sally is an important cultural link between The Nauteyri Project and the general public in the United Kingdom (especially Scotland).

“In the unique landscape of the Westfjords, such an unspoiled and gorgeous area of Iceland, The Nauteyri Project is a wonderful idea,” Sally says. “It is well worth supporting.”

The Nauteyri Project is a non-profit organisation in the wild and beautiful Westfjords region of Iceland. The Project aims to turn the vast majority of the 5,500 hectares of countryside at Nauteyri into a nature reserve; with the addition of facilities for accommodation, lectures, classes and a large array of outdoor activities for tourists and locals alike.

The Westfjords are suffering from ongoing depopulation and providing interesting leisure options for local people, as well as bringing sustainable tourism to the region, will help halt the decline.

Furthermore, every aspect of The Nauteyri Project’s activities will keep Mother Nature at the fore and avoid environmental degradation at all costs. A large part of The Project will revolve around inspiring local visitors and tourists from all over the world to learn how to live more sustainably and to inspire them to carry on long after they return home from Nauteyri.

Guests visiting The Nauteyri Project to stay overnight, to learn water sports, for courses, or all of the above, will eventually allow the non-profit organisation to support itself entirely. But start-up costs are high and The Project is committed to remain debt-free throughout. Therefore, donations of time, materials and money from individuals, businesses and foundations are necessary for The Project to come to life.

Supporters of The Nauteyri Project stand to get something in return; from discounts on-site to free advertising and the chance to get the Project founders to speak at meetings and conferences, The Nauteyri Project wants to enjoy a fruitful give/take relationship with all its partners.

Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!

Right now we are contacting all sorts of media organisations and doing our best to source funding from foundations, companies, charities and individuals.

This work will receive a noticeable boost when The Nauteyri Project finally becomes an officially registered non-profit organisation — something we are working on right now and which will hopefully become a reality in the very near future. At that point we will reopen this website’s donations feature (if you have donated already, have no fear: your money is perfectly safe).

Our initial optimistic goal of purchasing the land at Nauteyri from the Strandabyggð municipality on 1st September will certainly be missed; but we are hoping for September to be a big fundraising month.

So all that is left to be said is: thanks for your continued support and patience. We are certainly not giving up and we urge you to stick with us and help make The Nauteyri Project work.

On a related note, if anybody wants to see a copy of our comprehensive plan for the site, just drop us an email.

Peace.

Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!

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Remember, the “DONATE TO THE NAUTEYRI PROJECT” link is now active again!