Governance and management towards more diverse forest landscapes in the Gävleborg region
We invite you to participate in a workshop aimed at strengthening efforts to diversify forest landscapes in the Gävleborg region. The workshop is part of the research programs LANDPATHS and Mistra Environmental Communication. The focus of the day will be on issues related to governance, management and learning in times of uncertainty.
? Date: October 1, 2025 ? Time: 09:30 – 15:00 ? Location: Högbo Brukshotell, Hans Hiertas v 5, 811 92 Sandviken
In a time of war, climate change, biodiversity loss and a changing political landscape, questions about how we govern, manage and use our Swedish forests are being cast in a new light. Against the backdrop of a more uncertain world, it is becoming increasingly important to promote different functions and values in the landscape.
Recently, there have been a number of initiatives to shift from clear felling to less intensive forest management practices. Although industrial felling still dominates, there are important examples of alternatives to felling that challenge institutionalized norms and help to legitimize new ideas and developing new conceptions of forests and forestry.
The aim of the workshop is to explore how we can work within existing governance and management structures to empower initiators, facilitate networking and enable more people to act in ways that increase forest diversity. During the workshop, participants with different interests and knowledge in forests, from the private and public sectors, will discuss and think together about the following questions:
Who are the key actors driving the diversification of the forest landscape?
What kind of initiatives, innovations and relationships do these actors promote or discourage?
How can their roles be strengthened?
What room for action exists within existing governance and management?
We hope you will join us to share your insights and help develop governance and management that strengthens the diversity of the forest landscape.
Envisioning urban futures is as much a social and political act as it is a spatial one. It involves negotiating how we want to live together, what values we prioritise, and whose voices are included in shaping those futures. In the case of south east Uppsala—where a large-scale development plan includes 21,500 new housing units, a train station, and tramlines—this act of collective imagining has become a site of contestation.
A future vision for south east Uppsala 2025
Whose vision shapes the city?
Insights from our workshop held on 28 March 2025 revealed not only sharp critiques of the Uppsala municipality’s plan but also a deeper tension around whose visions for the city are allowed to shape its future.
A central finding from the workshop discussion is the constrained capacity for collective urban envisioning. The pre-determined scope and parameters of the municipality’s proposal cast a long shadow over what was intended as a co-creative, open-ended exercise in urban imagination. The plan’s dominant framing seemed to set the agenda in a way that inhibited local stakeholders—residents, civil society actors, and others—from articulating alternative imaginaries of what the area could become in the future. While green spaces were generally appreciated during the discussion, they were often mentioned as “the icing on the cake” rather than central elements. As a result, discussions centred less on collaboratively creating desirable visions and more on shared concerns around the top-down nature of the formal planning process.
From critique to collective action
This sense of exclusion is echoed in the prevalence of critical narratives directed at the municipality. Many participants voiced concerns over the sheer magnitude of the proposed development and pointed to a lack of meaningful public consultation during the early planning phases. There is also a widespread perception that environmental concerns—such as the preservation of nearby natural areas like Lunsen and Årike Fyris—have not been given adequate weight. These criticisms reflect not only discontent with specific aspects of the plan but also broader concerns about transparency, public participation, and the democratic legitimacy of the planning process.
These critiques stood in stark contrast with the municipality’s assertion that citizen dialogue had been conducted thoroughly and that public opinions were incorporated into the planning process. During the workshop, a political representative emphasised the need to balance individual preferences with broader sustainability objectives—an approach that would inevitably involve difficult trade-offs. At the same time, there are clear calls for more innovative thinking, long-term planning and a landscape perspective that accounts for both local values and global challenges.
Re-imagining planning through co-creation
Interestingly, the workshop conversations also revealed strong place-based resistance among certain local residents, often manifesting as Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) sentiments. Such responses speak to deep emotional and historical attachments to place. They highlight the underlying tensions between place-based attachments and the municipality’s overarching urban development ambitions. Resistance in this context is not necessarily about opposing urban development, but perhaps more about opposing a vision of development that feels imposed and disconnected from local identities and values.
Together, these findings suggest that creating opportunities for shared imagining among diverse stakeholder groups is key to making urban landscape management inclusive and co-creative. Such collaborative envisioning can complement formal planning frameworks by fostering spaces where community-driven ideas and narratives can meaningfully shape urban futures. Furthermore, the findings call for a shift in focus – from solely critiquing the structural limitations of formal planning to recognizing and embracing individual and collective agency to bring about change, even within those constraints.
The case of south east Uppsala is not just a technical matter of infrastructure, housing density or the encroachment on nature and green spaces. It is also a question of how to strike a balance between formal planning institutions and decisions made within representative democracy, and the potential that arises from innovative, co-creative approaches to imagining the collective future of multifunctional urban landscapes.
On 15-16 October 2024, the whole LANDPATHS team gathered at Wiks Slott near Uppsala for our annual retreat. This is a longer meeting where we take stock of our work and deepen the collaborations between the subprojects. This year, the retreat included an engaging workshop with some of our followers from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) and the County Administrative Boards (CAB).
Most of the team in front of beautiful Wiks Slott
Discussing our findings
On the first day, we started the meeting with a World Café exercise to identify and discuss our most pressing challenges and questions together. We focussed on identifying core themes emerging from the subprojects and thinking about how to synthesise our work going forwards. We also started to look at how our recommendations or proposed pathways for multifunctional landscapes can be made as useful and practical as possible for a range of people working in different organisations and in different contexts.
After these initial discussions we had the opportunity to discuss some of our emerging results and recommendations in more detail with Ann Åkerskog, Ingrid Johansson-Horner, Lars-Olof Sarenmark and Hannah Östergård Roswall (from SEPA), Therese Elfström and Ulrika Stensdotter Blomberg (from SwAM), and Klara Tullback Rosenström (representing CABs). We were able to think more about the target groups for our research, how the idea of multifunctional landscapes can appeal to a wider range of interests, and how the programme might contribute to the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration law that came into force in August 2024.
Discussing our findings and recommendations with followers
Shaping the LANDPATHS Manifesto
On day two, we shifted our focus to planning the Manifesto that we will present at the end of the programme. The Manifesto will be co-created within and beyond the programme, and include a range of recommendations on governance strategies, policies and sustainable practices for multifunctional landscapes. Building on the discussions from the first day, we were able to discuss the Manifesto co-creation process in more detail, as well as how best to structure our recommendations.
Revisiting the programme timeline and discussing collaborations
Deepening collaborations
A vital part of meetings like this is also to find the time to develop our collaborations within the programme and explore ideas in a supportive setting. There was time for side discussions about ongoing preparations for the deliberative mini-publics taking place this autumn in Voxnadalen and Nämdö, planning upcoming imaginaries workshops in the urban and agricultural subprojects, and also finding the time for some creative activities and walks in the surrounding forest.
We would like to thank everyone from SEPA, SwAM and CAB who joined us at this meeting and we look forwards to working more closely with you all in the coming months!
Biodiversity — the variation of species, genes, and ecosystems—is crucial for all life on Earth, including humanity. Research shows that one million species are globally threatened by extinction due to human activity, a situation that also affects Sweden. This summer, several opinion pieces were published in Swedish newspapers about the relationship between development and the environment, with contributions from Tuija Hilding-Rydevik, a professor with the LANDPATHS program.
The corn bunting can be found in agricultural landscapes but is severely threatened in Sweden due to intensified farming and the use of pesticides. Picture credit: MandrillArt Pixabay
Nature protection and development as rivals
In May 2024, representatives from Sweden’s Moderate Party wrote an article in DN Debatt, arguing that the protection of “common species” is often prioritized over development, which they believe requires political change. According to the Moderate Party’s policy program, environmental policy should focus on human needs for natural resources and development, even if it involves compromises that negatively impact endangered species. They also proposed that landowners in forestry and agricultural landscapes who promote biodiversity should have greater freedom in how they use their land. The article also questioned the general decline in biodiversity.
Reactions
The article written by the Moderate Party sparked a wave of responses and articles in the Swedish press. Tuija Hilding-Rydevik, a professor emeritus in Environmental Assessment at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and leader of LANDPATHS Agricultural Landscape subproject, co-authored two articles responding to the Moderates’ claims.
“My reaction was clear: how uninformed the authors must be about humanity’s dependence on biodiversity, and the threats that ultimately affect us and our societies. Preserving and promoting biodiversity means keeping human needs in mind—today and tomorrow. The second reaction was that it’s good to have their positions stated so clearly, so they can be countered.”
Tuija Hilding-Rydevik
Researchers warn of widening gap between humans and nature
The first response was published as an opinion piece in Altinget Miljö och Energi in June 2024, co-authored by over 20 researchers. They criticized the Moderates’ claim of a conflict between development and the environment. According to the researchers, this misconception creates a dangerous polarization between humans and nature. They stressed that biodiversity is essential for human survival and economies, and warned that the Red List Index shows an accelerating loss of species globally—a clear sign of ecosystem distress.
The researchers also emphasized that the full value of biodiversity is difficult to quantify in monetary terms. With a planet already dominated by human activity, this poses an urgent threat to ecosystem services such as food, clean water, protection from disease, and climate disasters.
Proposal for a nature policy framework
A follow-up to this opinion piece came in July 2024 in Göteborgsposten, where over 50 researchers and civil society representatives warned that the loss of biodiversity is a threat to humanity’s future, to the same extent as climate change.
The authors called for the introduction of a “nature policy framework,” similar to the existing climate policy framework, to stop and reverse the loss of species and habitats. They proposed a natural law, a nature policy goal, and a nature policy council.
The nature crisis requires societal transformation
The article criticized cuts to conservation budgets and decreasing support for making sectors like agriculture and forestry sustainable. Addressing the nature crisis requires a societal transformation, with all sectors contributing. The nature and climate crises are closely linked, and solutions to one must consider the other.
The authors suggested that by establishing a nature policy framework with concrete goals and resources, Sweden could take a leadership role in reversing the trend and ensuring a sustainable future. The government and parliament are urged to act immediately and implement this proposal to protect nature and thus humanity’s future.
Biodiversity in agricultural landscapes
Fifty percent of the more than 4,700 red-listed species are found in agricultural landscapes. This environment is critical for about one-third of these species. Threats to plants mainly stem from changes in land use, leading to overgrowth, increased nutrient loads, reduced land management (e.g., less grazing and mowing), climate change, and reduced connectivity for the movement of plants and animals (fragmentation). Agriculture relies on ecosystem services provided by nature, such as pollination from insects, contributions to favourable soil structure for cultivation, and pest control by naturally occurring predators.
Therefore, it is important that the 64 billion SEK in subsidies and payments to Sweden’s farmers through the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy benefit both farmers’ production and biodiversity in the agricultural landscape. This issue is being studied in depth in the Agricultural Landscape subproject within LANDPATHS.
Mikael Karlsson, leader of LANDPATHS project Transformative Governance Pathways, recently wrote a column in Miljö & Utveckling (Environment and Development), a magazine for those working with environmental and sustainability issues within Swedish business and the public sector.
In the article, Mikael writes about how the concept of landscape is used in Swedish environmental monitoring and target-setting, and how ideas of landscape should focus on the various values of stakeholders.
Mikael raises concerns that Sweden is not living up to the obligations of the European Union’s Landscape Convention, and highlights some good examples of Swedish public authorities and others who are bucking that trend.
Citizen engagement and policy coherence for a sustainable transition
Frida Öhman and Fanny Möckel presented their research within Landpaths at the Beyond Crisis/Beyond normal conference arranged by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. The conference participants, mainly researchers in social science and humanities, explored aspects of sustainability such as just transition and trade-offs across everyday life, politics, technology, art, and innovation through a broad range of disciplinary and cross-disciplinary perspectives. Main speakers were Kirsten Jenkins from University of Edinburgh, UK, Stuart Capstick from Cardiff University in Wales and Ferne Edwards from the University of Surrey, UK. The conference convened around twenty different sessions.
Stuart Capstick, University of Cardiff in Wales welcomes to the conference with his keynote on what the role of citizens is in adverting climate breakdown
Engagement with citizens in landscape governance processes
Fanny, who is a PhD student at Uppsala university working in Landpaths subproject Barriers and Opportunities for Change, presented her work in the session “Building capacity for climate adaptation through involving citizens”. In her presentation she addressed the value of citizen engagement in deliberation and how such an approach can complement already-existing and more common stakeholder engagement processes. She highlighted “deliberative mini-publics” as a meaningful way to engage with citizens in broader landscape governance processes. The presentation was concluded with an outline of her planned case work within Landpaths. The audience showed great interest in the tool “deliberative mini-public” and was curious to see how this will be implemented in the Swedish cases within Landpaths.
An analytical framework to map policy coherence
Frida, also PhD student at Uppsala university, is working in Landpaths subproject Transformative governance pathways. She presented her work on governance analysis for promoting multifunctional landscapes in the session “Land use challenges”. Frida set the stage by reminding about the challenges caused by the multiplicity of sectoral policies that all aim to steer land use. Given the importance of analysing the coherence between such policies, Frida presented an analytical framework based on the European Landscape Convention. Participants joined the subsequent discussion with comments on policy coherence and landscape approaches also showing great interest in the research topic.
Topics connecting to research in Landpaths
Other sessions of the two-days long conference were on geographical perspectives, on just and sustainable transition and transition in tension, all sessions that invited for networking. Moreover, a session centring on bridging concerns for justice and speed elaborated on the dilemma of challenges and trade-offs of accelerated transitions; many aspects related to themes addressed in Landpaths. Sessions covered, for example, how to review and establish just and well-working environment/climate policies. In another session the audience listened to and discussed how the general public is involved and could be involved in transition periods towards a more sustainable future. All sessions carried the message that, while transitioning towards a more sustainable society, societal aspects such as policy acceptance, public engagement are highly relevant.
Trondheim
Network building and experiential workshop
Besides the more formal sessions, the conferences hosted several poster- and workshop sessions that invited for interaction with participants from all over Europe and beyond. Some of the presented projects were closely linked to Frida’s and Fanny’s work, and they valued a fruitful exchange of research interest and ideas across different geographical contexts. The two PhD students also participated in a workshop focusing on mapping. After a short presentation on the tool and exercise of creating a mental map of an experienced place, the group went for a walk to a close by park in Trondheim. The participants were asked to first experience the park while walking around in silence. In the second step, they drew a map of their experiences with closed eyes in order to capture the feeling of the place. Finally, in a group discussion, they discussed how such a tool can support the planning of specific places in times of transition.
Walking towards the area for the session on “mapped experiences”, Trondheim
Train ride through mountain landscape
Going home from the conference by train through the beautiful autumn mountain landscape between Trondheim and Oslo gave Frida and Fanny the chance to digest all the knowledge and inspiration gained during the conference.
The beautiful autumn landscape between Trondheim and Oslo
