The nation should hurry to the birch woods

“We encourage everyone in the country to head out into the birch woods, collect birch seeds, and spread the birch forests once again,” says Ingibjörg Steinunn Ingjaldsdóttir, one of the owners of Prentmet Oddi, as a national campaign kicks off today on Icelandic Nature Day.

Prentmet Oddi designed and printed boxes for the birch seeds that people will collect in their local area or in selected birch forests in their part of the country. On the box, people mark where and when the seeds were collected. “The idea for this project came from the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland and the Icelandic Forest Service. The project is run by them and officially begins at Bessastaðir today on Icelandic Nature Day,” says Ingibjörg Steinunn.

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Forestry is important

“Prentmet Oddi is a partner in this project along with Terra and Bónus. Since then, Lions, Landvernd, and the Icelandic Forestry Association have also joined the partnership. We are incredibly proud of this project, and this initiative strongly supports our company's environmental policy. The printing industry in Iceland is highly environmentally certified, and the paper comes mostly from commercial forests in Europe. Forestry plays an important role in environmental and climate issues. In one year, a single tree absorbs an average of 22 kg of carbon dioxide and releases oxygen,” she mentions. “The campaign is part of an effort to re-establish the birch woodlands that covered at least a quarter of the country at the time of settlement. Degraded land often emits carbon because old soil is still decomposing. When the land is covered with birch forest, these emissions stop, and carbon sequestration begins instead. Birch is a pioneer species that self-seeds extensively if left undisturbed. Therefore, the birch will continue the work if it is successfully established in new areas.”

Environmentally friendly packaging

The boxes are made of cardboard and were designed by Guðbjörg Olga Kristbjörnsdóttir, a product designer at Prentmet Oddi. “They are environmentally friendly, well-suited for this project, and contain key information about this national campaign. People then mark on them where the birch seeds were collected.