Forlandet

Forlandet National Park was established in 1973 in the Svalbard archipelago and protects 4,647 km² comprising the uninhabited island of Prins Karls Forland and the waters around it. It is Norway's third largest national park by area.

The island is long and narrow, some eighty-six kilometres from north to south, and runs parallel to the western coast of Spitsbergen, separated from it by the Forlandsundet strait. Its relief is one of contrasts: the northern half is mountainous and glaciated, with sharp peaks rising above a thousand metres, while the south is a low coastal plain of gravel beaches, lagoons and tundra.

Those southern plains are the main reason for the protection. They hold the most northerly harbour seal population in the world, an isolated nucleus of a few hundred animals that stays in these waters year-round, and the northernmost breeding colony of common guillemot on the planet. There are also walrus haul-out sites on the beaches. The park is recognised as a wetland of international importance and as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International, and access to it is regulated to avoid disturbance during the breeding season.