Integrating Nature and Heritage in the Boreal Forests of Scandinavia? Exploration of a Low-Budget Method

Abstract

ABSTRACT The concepts landscape and biocultural heritage are based on an integrated view of nature and cultural heritage. This paper investigates the potential of using a low-budget method for integrating information on human impact and natural responses in the vegetation of boreal forested Scandinavia. The information from two national databases in Sweden – the National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden (NILS) covering surveyed vegetation, and the Register of Ancient Monuments (Fornsök) – were combined and visualised using a Geographical Information System (GIS). In total, five sites were investigated. No connection between human impact and vegetation was detected at any of them. This negative result is partly due to gaps in time and scale, but mainly to sectorised survey methods not paying attention to biocultural heritage, landscape perspectives or long-term processes. The paper concludes that further development of survey methods and registers targeting contexts and processes are called for.