Exploring cultural values and participation within landscape management in Highland Scotland Amy Holden School of the Environment, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD14HN, a.e.holden@dundee.ac.uk
Policy context: the challenge of participation Increasingly landscape management is taking a ‘values-based’ approach and promoting greater stakeholder participation. Participation is regarded as promoting a greater sense of ownership and responsibility from those who participate and as such make management more sustainable. There are however, some potential challenges with a ‘values-based’ approach and broader participation in practice:
Research findings—about landscapes
Landscapes are understood in a complex way:
Visually - at different scales, changes and continuity within the landscape
Experientially - all the different sense of the body, the connection between body and mind
Emotionally - the emotional situation that an individual may be in, personal memories, history of the landscape and the people who have lived there
Landscapes are therefore much more individual and nuanced and more than just the material landscape that can be looked at from a distance. ‘No they’re a living thing they’re changing, they change with the seasons of the year. You see in the winter time these hills and the landscape is covered in snow, in the spring time you see the grass starting to come through, then summer time it’s blossoming, everything’s thriving, you see birds nested there’s young on the go ... it’s a living environment and then by the autumn time it starts to die a bit again ‘cos everything changes colour to browns and all kinds of dark purples and just beautiful scenery really ... you’re seeing it different all the time really.’ (Steven, local resident)
Potentially different and opposing ‘values’;
Long negotiations between multiple and diverse stakeholders may result in poor management for the landscape and the local people;
The introduction of more subjective and individual values which could conflict with ecological and economic ‘objective’ values;
How to engage stakeholders, in particular those that feel they are not interested or it doesn’t affect them, within the whole process of management.
This research therefore wishes to address these challenges of participation and in particular, explore how landscapes are valued by multiple landscape stakeholders in two case study areas in the north-west Highlands of Scotland.
Research design
Research findings—landscape management and next steps
Management was discussed broadly around the following themes: Material outcomes - path works, events, reforestation, deer fencing, restoration of buildings.
Culture - past and present cultures, crofting, deer, trees (plantation and native species), sheep, folklore, family stories. Representation - involvement of the community and owner(s) of the land, the changing dynamics of the population within the area, community confidence. Designations - top-down management from organisations outwith the area, seeing land as productive or something to be preserved.
‘I just wonder whether the landscape exists of its own, of itself or is it only really ... you know reliant on what people either use or don’t use it for, it’s quite a difficult concept, the landscape,’ (Richard, local resident, original emphasis)
Landscape management can be highly emotional and political, reflecting the complex relationship people have with the landscape. This suggests greater participation within the landscape management process (from design through to implementation) is needed to better understand these complexities. Not all participants want to be involved with the management of landscapes, however, either because they felt it didn’t directly impact them or they didn’t want to get involved with the politics. How participation is implemented and results communicated, therefore, needs to be carefully considered to take into account population dynamics and culture.