Hopp til hovedinnholdet

Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2015

To document

Abstract

Public participation in landscape planning and management has received increased attention acrossEurope since the European Landscape Convention (ELC) came into force in 2004. The ELC has now beenratified by many countries, which have been working on its implementation for up to several years. In thisarticle, we study experiences from public participation in five different planning processes in Norway,and we assess the methods used according to a set of evaluation criteria developed in a European context:Scope, Representativeness, Timing, Comfort and Convenience, and Influence. Subsequently we identifyten singular methods as being particularly effective in terms of contributing significantly to increasingscores of Scope, Representativeness, and Comfort and convenience, i.e. the criteria most influenced by themethods chosen. All ten methods identified contribute to increase scores on one or two evaluation crite-ria, which underlines the importance of combining different methods to achieve effective participationwithin the restricted framework of a concrete spatial planning process. In an international perspectiveit seems most fruitful to apply a set of both dominantly verbal methods as practiced in Norway andsomewhat more visual approaches used in other countries. This would also acknowledge basic differ-ences among theoretical understandings of landscape and follow a recent scientific development of theconcept of landscape.

Abstract

Increased forest biomass production for bioenergy will have various consequences for landscape scenery, depending on both the landscape features present and the character and intensity of the silvicultural and harvesting methods used. We review forest preference research carried out in Finland, Sweden and Norway, and discuss these findings in relation to bioenergy production in boreal forest ecosystems. Some production methods and related operations incur negative reactions among the public, e.g. stump harvesting, dense plantation, soil preparation, road construction, the use of non-native species, and partly also harvest of current non-productive forests. Positive visual effects of bioenergy production tend to be linked to harvesting methods such as tending, thinning, selective logging and residue harvesting that enhance both stand and landscape openness, and visual and physical accessibility. Relatively large differences in findings between studies underline the importance of local contextual knowledge about landscape values and how people use the particular landscape where different forms of bioenergy production will occur. This scientific knowledge may be used to formulate guiding principles for visual management of boreal forest bioenergy landscapes.