Background
Statkraft aims to limit the environmental impact of its operations and is continually improving the environmental performance of its existing facilities. The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) carries out on-site environmental audits of Statkraft's facilities and has, on several occasions, pointed out a lack of vegetation in and around the sites.   

According to the draft of the new ”Act relating to the preservation of nature, the landscape and biodiversity”, place-specific plant material will, in future, have to be used in connection with site restoration in mountain areas.  

As of today there are no commercially available seed mixes based on high altitude plant varieties.

Implementation
Statkraft, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) and other organisations which require seed material have joined forces with the seed producer Frøavlslaget i Telemark and the biological research establishment Bioforsk Landvik to undertake a user-run innovation project.

Results
The project’s objective is to establish a source of place-specific seed material which can be used for revegetation purposes when restoring mountain terrain after man-made interventions. Such seeds are needed in connection with the establishment of new sites and the restoration of old sites.

The project will entail:

• the collection of seeds from place-specific plant varieties and generic mountain grasses and plants
• the development of methods for cost-effective seed-propagation
•  the trial replanting of propagated seed material at selected sites in the mountains