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Different Worldviews as Impediments to Integrated Nature and Cultural Heritage Conservation Management: Experiences from Protected Areas in Northern Sweden
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Physical Geography.
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Physical Geography.
Number of Authors: 32020 (English)In: Sustainability, E-ISSN 2071-1050, Vol. 12, no 9, article id 3533Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In the management of protected nature areas, arguments are being raised for increasingly integrated approaches. Despite an explicit ambition from the responsible managing governmental agencies, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Swedish National Heritage Board, attempts to initiate and increase the degree of integrated nature and cultural heritage conservation management in the Swedish mountains are failing. The delivery of environmental policy through the Swedish National Environmental Objective called Magnificent Mountains is dependent on increased collaboration between the state and local stakeholders. This study, using a group model building approach, maps out the system's dynamic interactions between nature perceptions, values and the objectives of managing agencies and local stakeholders. It is identified that the dominance of a wilderness discourse influences both the objectives and management of the protected areas. This wilderness discourse functions as a barrier against including cultural heritage conservation aspects and local stakeholders in management, as wilderness-influenced objectives are defining protected areas as environments untouched by humans. A wilderness objective reduces the need for local knowledge and participation in environmental management. In reality, protected areas depend, to varying degrees, on the continuation of traditional land-use practices.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. Vol. 12, no 9, article id 3533
Keywords [en]
integrated environmental management, cultural landscapes, stakeholder participation, landscape planning, systems thinking, group modeling, participatory modeling, conservation, wilderness, wilderness discourse, Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
National Category
Earth and Related Environmental Sciences Social and Economic Geography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-183103DOI: 10.3390/su12093533ISI: 000537476200032OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-183103DiVA, id: diva2:1452925
Available from: 2020-07-08 Created: 2020-07-08 Last updated: 2025-01-31Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Nature conservation, landscape change and indigenous rights: The role of Sámi reindeer herding for environmental objectives in the Swedish mountain landscape
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Nature conservation, landscape change and indigenous rights: The role of Sámi reindeer herding for environmental objectives in the Swedish mountain landscape
2020 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The 14th Swedish national environmental objective, ‘a Magnificent Mountain Landscape’, requires a mountain landscape characterized by reindeer grazing. The Swedish mountains landscape, part of the Scandes, has been shaped by traditional indigenous Sámi reindeer herding and its grazed environments are dependent on reindeer. In spite of this, the mountain region is often referred to as the last wilderness in Europe. Twenty years since its adoption the aims of this environmental objective for the Swedish mountains is still not achieved. Sweden is internationally often seen as a frontrunner for environmental ambitions, but formal indigenous rights remain relatively weak. In the case of the Magnificent Mountain Landscape objective, the environmental ambitions are dependent on the continuation of a traditional indigenous livelihood and land use based on reindeer herding. While the mountain objective explicitly focus on the mountain area the attainment of the objective is dependent on developments in the whole reindeer grazing area that encompasses vast areas outside the Scandes. Reindeer herding is, however, under increasing pressure from multiple anthropogenic pressures like climate change and encroachments from various types of natural resource extraction on traditional grazing grounds. Land use planning that ensure the continuation of a viable reindeer herding in the whole reindeer herding landscape, not only the mountain areas proper, is therefore essential if the Magnificent Mountains Landscape objective is to be achieved. The thesis is guided by three main research questions: 1/ how have multiple pressures developed in the reindeer herding area in northern Sweden, 2/ how has Sámi participation in land use planning unfolded in northern Sweden, and 3/ what possibilities/conditions are there in place to maintain/sustain the environmental state in the Swedish mountain region given current multiple pressures and planning processes? Based on a transdisciplinary systems approach as well as on quantitative and qualitative methods the results show that stressing weather events have increased in the reindeer herding area, alongside with rapid and significant increase in industrial land use for natural resource extraction. The actual process of rapidly increasing, as well as cumulative, industrial land use also reduce the ability for Sámi reindeer herding communities to influece land use planning. Meanwhile the cumulative effects assesssments for proposed industrial projects poorly describe cumulative effects on reindeer herding. Protected areas in the mountain region that should be requesting the ecosystem services of reindeer grazing also unsufficiently do so because of a too dominant view of its nature as a wilderness, with the implication that reindeer herding is less valued in nature conservation management. If the ambitious environmental objectives for the Swedish mountain range are to be reached it also means that the continuation of traditional Sámi reindeer herding needs to be safeguarded in the whole reindeer herding area, also outside the mountains.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, 2020. p. 50
Series
Dissertations in Physical Geography, ISSN 2003-2358 ; 10
Keywords
Land use planning, Cumulative Effects, Reindeer herding, Natural resource extraction, Environmental Management
National Category
Physical Geography
Research subject
Physical Geography
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-184776 (URN)978-91-7797-805-3 (ISBN)978-91-7797-806-0 (ISBN)
Public defence
2020-10-23, De Geersalen, Geovetenskapens hus, Svante Arrhenius väg 14 and digitally via Zoom: https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/65793078875, Stockholm, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2020-09-30 Created: 2020-09-09 Last updated: 2022-02-25Bibliographically approved

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Österlin, CarlStjernquist, Ingrid

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