Category: Möten

Citizens’ Jury on the Nämdö archipelago Biosphere Reserve underway

29 October 2024 /

On Saturday 19 October, the participants in Nämdöskärgården’s citizens’ council gathered for the first time. The council brought together 25 citizens with different opinions and connections to the Nämdöskärgården. Some were year-round residents while others were part-time or summer residents. After an educational and information-rich first day, the preparations for the next gathering, which will take place on November 16, now begin.

This blog post is an English translation of an article we wrote on the Nämdö Green Archipelago (NGA) website (see the NGA article in Swedish).

The citizens’ jury in the Nämdö archipelago connects with the process of establishing a Biosphere Reserve around Nämdö and its surrounding islands. A collaboration between LANDPATHS and Nämdö Green Archipelago, the citizens’ jury is tasked with generating input on the future development of the archipelago, with a specific focus on which initiatives should be prioritized in the local actors’ continued work to establish the biosphere area.

During the first day, the participants learned more about what a Biosphere Reserve is and listened to different perspectives on the challenges and opportunities the faced in Nämdö. 

Speakers during the first day: 

  • Nämdö Archipelago Biosphere Reserve, Ann Aldeheim, Nämdö Green Archipelago
  • Preserve on land and below the surface, Elin Dahlgren, SLU
  • Community service and development, Anna Gabrielsson, Värmdö municipality
  • Infrastructure and transport, Sune Fogelström
  • Business and tourism, Martin Rosén, Stavsnäs Båttaxi
  • Social meeting places and culture, Kerstin Sonnbäck, Lower Dalälven Biosphere Reserve

After each presentation, the participants had the opportunity to reflect in small groups on the presented perspectives, ask questions and discuss their views and experiences. Afterwards, the participants were encouraged to write a future vision to describe how they imagine the Nämdö archipelago in the coming years. The day ended with shared reflections and impressions from the day, as well as expectations for the future.

With information, experiences and reflections from the first day, the group will gather again on Saturday 16 November. The focus of the second day will be on delving into the different perspectives, and prioritising and analysing the advantages and disadvantages of different efforts. 

The result of the citizens’ jury will form the basis for Nämdö Green Archipelago’s continued work to establish a biosphere area in the landscape.

A big thank you to all participants for your time and commitment!

More information about the citizen jury method

In a citizens’ jury, citizens are selected according to criteria that ensure a broad representation of the public in a small group. Over several days, the participants hear different perspectives, opinions and expert knowledge, and then get to discuss the issue in depth. The process usually ends with a joint conclusion or recommendations. Citizens are compensated for their participation in this process.

For more information about the citizens’ juries taking place within LANDPATHS, contact Tim Daw (leader of the Barriers and opportunities for change project).

Highlighting multifunctional landscape governance at conferences

27 June 2024 /

In June 2024, LANDPATHS researchers contributed to the NESS and POLLEN conferences through presentation of their research and by arranging workshops and panel discussions. We summarize here how these activities have encouraged discussion on multifunctional landscape governance in the Nordics.

LANDPATHS at the Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference

The 16th Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference (NESS) was held in Åbo, Finland early in June 2024. At this years edition of the biannual conference, environmental social science scholars as well as researchers from other disciplines discussed various aspects around the central topic “Co-creation for sustainability”. LANDPATHS researchers submitted manuscripts to two out of the 28 different workshops at NESS and co-organized a total of three workshops. The manuscripts submitted are listed below and will be sent to scientific journals for publication in the coming months.

  • Blicharska G et al.: Landscape multifunctionality as a pillar of biodiversity governance? Insights from Sweden. 
  • Westerberg C, Tafon R, Gilek M: Navigating conflict and exclusion in conservation and sustainability governance of the Nämdö archipelago, Sweden 
  • Öhman F, Karlsson M: Promoting multifunctional landscapes – a policy coherence analysis
  • Tickle L, Hedblom, M: Doing Multifunctionality in Urban Woodlands: How Bottom-Up Initiatives are Negotiated and Resisted in Urban Governance
  • Lundberg-Felten J, Kristensson D, Karlsson M: Who cares about fungal diversity? Exploring the voice of mushrooms among individual private forest owners in Sweden 

Besides LANDPATHS’ own NESS workshop on multifunctional governance (see below), Tim Daw and Fanny Möckel co-organized a workshop on the impacts of deliberative mini-publics on environmental governance and attitudes, and Sara Holmgren co-led a workshop entitled “Story telling as, and for, sustainable thinking”.

Åbo harbor to which the LANDPATHS researcher delegation attending the NESS conference arrived by overnight ferry from Stockholm.
Workshop on Multifunctional Governance for Biodiversity

LANDPATHS researchers Michael Gilek, Mikael Karlsson and Neil Powell organized a workshop at NESS on multifunctional governance for biodiversity. Articles were presented on envisioning nature futures for Europe and, more specifically, on transformative initiatives for biodiversity restoration in the relation to the flower bulb industry in rural areas of the Netherlands.

Other submissions to the workshop were concerned with exploring concepts in connection with multifunctional landscapes such as social learning in multi-use forestry, area neutrality in city planning, and the implementation process of protected areas in marine and coastal areas. The latter study was presented by Charles Westerberg, PhD student in subproject marine and coastal landscapes. Most of the articles presented were qualitative studies. Nevertheless, one quantitative study assessed the acceptance of conservation policies.

Frida Öhman, PhD student in LANDPATHS subproject transformative governance pathways, presented a new framework for policy coherence for multifunctional landscape governance. The LANDPATHS review paper on landscape multifunctionality, co-ordinated by LANDPATHS programme leader Malgorzata Blicharska and co-authored by numerous LANDPATHS colleagues was also presented. The participants of the workshop had fruitful discussions regarding landscape approaches, methods and institutional challenges for halting biodiversity loss. 

Towards Just & Plural Futures

Just one week after the NESS conference, the Political Ecology Network Conference POLLEN 2024 took place in Lund under the theme ‘Towards Just and Plural Futures’.  At the conference, LANDPATHS PhD student Fanny Möckel discussed our ongoing work in collaboration with different biosphere reserves in Sweden, in a panel consisting of transdisciplinary researchers working with biosphere reserves and political ecologists. Guided by the question “How can Biosphere Reserves be Places of Environmental Justice?”, the panel explored the potential of biosphere reserves as places that address issues of environmental justice. Participants in the panel shared both empirical and theoretical insights into their work. They addressed different ways in which biosphere reserves can be places that enable just transformations towards more sustainable futures, and what such processes could look like.

Within the LANDPATHS programme, studies are being carried out in Voxnadalen, an established biosphere, and Nämdö Skärgård, a biosphere under establishment. In autumn 2024, LANDPATHS researchers together with local biosphere reserves will organize deliberative mini-publics. 

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