Contested landscapes: navigating competing claims and cumulative impacts in Northern Sweden (CO-LAND)

One of the most complex and acute challenges of contemporary land use planning concerns multiple and increasingly competing claims over land and natural resources. This project builds on ongoing interdisciplinary research efforts and close collaboration with public authorities and stakeholders. It addresses the methodological challenges in assessing the cumulative impacts of multiple pressures on landscape functionality. It also investigates the insufficiencies in the current governance institutions to generate a landscape perspective, navigate competing claims and reduce the conflict level between landscape users.

The main research questions are:

1. What are the most promising approaches to generate a landscape perspective and account for cumulative impacts?
2. How can these approaches be embedded in the environmental planning and permit processes to aid civil servants and stakeholders reduce conflicts and build more trust for diverging forms of knowledge?

The project team includes Rasmus Larsen (SEI, project leader), Anna Skarin (workpackage leader, SLU), Per Sandström (SLU), Stefan Sandström (SLU), Moudud Alam (Dalarna University), Carl Österlin (Stockholm University), Rebecca Lawrence (Stockholm University), Kaisa Raitio (SLU), the reindeer herding communities Vilhelmina norra and Sirges and the Swedish Sami Association (SSR).