UNESCO World Heritage, VEGA

Vega Archipelago World Heritage Area- a unique cultural landscape and strandflat on UNESCO’s World Heritage List

With its 6500 islands, islets and skerries scattered over 1037 km2, the Vega archipelago is the realm of the eider duck. People have inhabited
islands in these shallow waters for more than 10 000 years.

The Vega Archipelago was inscribed on the UNESCO List of World Natural and Cultural Heritage in 2004 as the first Norwegian cultural landscape area.

"The Vega archipelago reflects the way generations of fishermen-farmers have, over the past 1500 years, maintained a sustainable living in an inhospitable seascape near the Arctic Circle, based on the now unique practice of eider down harvesting, and it also celebrates women’s contribution to the eider down process". -UNESCO's World Heritage Committee

Vega Archipelago World Heritage Foundation