Norwegian Environment Agency (Miljodirektoratet)

Key facts

• The agency was established on 1 July 2013 from the merger of the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management and the Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency; its head office is in Trondheim and Hilde Singsaas became director general on 1 March 2025, succeeding Ellen Hambro who led it from 2013 (encyclopedia source).
• It sits under the Ministry of Climate and Environment, has about 700 staff at offices in Trondheim and Oslo plus local offices of the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate (SNO), and its main tasks are cutting greenhouse gas emissions, managing Norwegian nature and preventing pollution.
• Its wild reindeer page says CWD was found in the Nordfjella wild reindeer area in 2016 and on Hardangervidda in 2020, that the whole Nordfjella zone 1 population was culled in 2017 with the aim of later bringing back healthy reindeer, that re-establishment work began in 2025, and that the agency works with the Norwegian Agriculture Agency and Mattilsynet to map CWD and prevent its spread.
• Mattilsynet and the Environment Agency jointly asked VKM for its first CWD opinion (Report 2016:26, commissioned 27 June and published 30 June 2016) and for Report 2017:9 (commissioned 2 March, published 29 March 2017), which advised culling confined populations such as the Nordfjella reindeer and leaving the area fallow for at least five years.
• The 2016 and 2017 national CWD survey by the Norwegian Veterinary Institute and NINA was done on commission from Mattilsynet and the Environment Agency.
• Mattilsynet and the Environment Agency wrote the cull plan for Nordfjella zone 1, commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, covering removal of about 2,000 reindeer, and a separate re-establishment plan that sets a fallow period of at least five years before healthy reindeer are reintroduced.
• Marksmen from the agency's SNO unit culled 50 adult males and 2 adult females in Nordfjella zone 2 between January and April 2019; the paper reporting this says the extra cull raised certainty of freedom from infection in zone 2 to 75 percent, and lists the Environment Agency as a funder.
• The agency co-funded the characterisation of Norwegian cervid CWD isolates in the 2022 Pritzkow study comparing Norwegian and North American CWD prions (project number 3201040004).
• In April 2021 Mattilsynet and the Environment Agency jointly recommended cutting the Hardangervidda reindeer population to 500 to 1,000 animals, removing about 700 adult bucks, quickly removing sick animals and keeping moose, red deer and roe deer around the plateau at low levels, in a report handed to the agriculture and climate ministries (trade press report).
• On 16 May 2025 the agency opened a consultation (deadline 16 June 2025) on extended moose and red deer hunting seasons in 22 municipalities around Hardangervidda and Nordfjella, to 23 December 2027 for moose and 31 January 2028 for red deer, to reduce cervid numbers as part of CWD control.

Timeline

1. 2013Agency formed on 1 July 2013 by merger of two predecessor bodies.
2. 2016Jointly with Mattilsynet, requests VKM Report 2016:26 on the origin of CWD in Norway, published 30 June 2016.
3. 201617 Co-commissions the national CWD survey from the Veterinary Institute and NINA.
4. 2017Joint cull plan and re-establishment plan for Nordfjella zone 1 published with Mattilsynet (publication pages dated June and November 2017 in their web paths).
5. 2017VKM Report 2017:9, requested by the agency and Mattilsynet, published 29 March 2017 with cull and fallowing advice.
6. 2019SNO marksmen begin extra culling in Nordfjella zone 2, January to April 2019.
7. 2021Joint recommendation with Mattilsynet on CWD measures for Hardangervidda.
8. 2025Re-establishment work for Nordfjella reindeer begins.
9. 2025Hilde Singsaas takes over as director general on 1 March 2025.
10. 2025Consultation on extended moose and red deer seasons around Hardangervidda and Nordfjella opens 16 May 2025.