Past Landscapes, Future Choices (PAST2FUTURE)

"Past Landscapes, Future Choices: Deep-time transitions and the Social Legitimacy of the Green Shift.” explores how deep historical knowledge can guide a just, legitimate green transition in Norway, focusing on alpine and sub-alpine regions where wild reindeer are a key indicator species. These areas face escalating conflicts among renewable energy development, conservation, and heritage protection. By examining long-term human-reindeer interactions, mobility systems, and land use, the study reveals historical models of sustainability that challenge modern ideas of efficiency, growth, and exploitation.

Video presentation of the trapping facility (external link)

Using the analytical concept of path dependency, we examine how past systems of mountain adaptation shape current cultural ideals, governance structures, and contemporary conflicts over access, resource use, and environmental sustainability. The project focuses on three key decision areas: licensing and spatial planning for renewable energy in mountainous areas, governance of wild reindeer and protected landscapes, and participation mechanisms for local communities affected by transition measures.

Through data collection, fieldwork, interviews, participatory workshops, national surveys, and policy analysis, the project links historical land-use systems to current governance challenges. By integrating cultural and natural historical heritage and cultural values into decision-making, the project strengthens the legitimacy of the green transition and supports policymakers, heritage managers, and local communities in balancing ecological responsibility with social equity.

An application for funding has been submitted to the NRC under the "Research for a Just and Green Transition" program.