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.

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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.

Short summery of the application:

PAST2FUTURE: Past Landscapes, Future Choices: Deep-Time Transitions and the Social Legitimacy of the Green Shift

The project examines how long-term historical and environmental knowledge can contribute to a socially legitimate and just green transition in Norway’s mountain regions, particularly those inhabited by wild reindeer. These landscapes are increasingly affected by tensions among renewable energy development, biodiversity conservation, cultural heritage protection, and local land-use interests.

Research Problem

The project addresses a major gap in current transition research and policy: while the ecological and technical dimensions of the green transition are relatively well understood, there remains insufficient knowledge of how historical land use, cultural values, governance structures, and social experiences shape public acceptance, trust, legitimacy, and perceptions of fairness. Contemporary policymaking often treats climate action, energy development, conservation, and cultural heritage as separate issues, overlooking their deep historical connections and the conflicts that arise when they intersect. 

The project argues that the green transition is not merely a technical or environmental challenge but also a social, historical, and ethical process. It seeks to explain why transition measures garner support in some cases and meet resistance in others, and how long-term perspectives can improve decision-making and governance. 

Main Objective

The primary objective is to generate interdisciplinary knowledge on transition pathways in Norway’s high-mountain regions by integrating evidence from archaeology, environmental sciences, social sciences, and law. The project aims to identify ecological thresholds, understand long-term human-environment interactions, and improve governance, policy, and heritage management to support a fair, effective, and socially legitimate green transition. 

Specific Objectives

• Reconstruct long-term human-reindeer relationships and historical land-use practices to identify ecological thresholds and models of sustainability. 
• Investigate how renewable energy development, conservation initiatives, and wilderness policies reshape cultural landscapes and create conflict. 
• Analyse how the costs and benefits of transition measures are distributed across communities and stakeholders, and how governance and legal frameworks shape perceptions of fairness and trust. 
• Examine how concepts such as path dependency, the commons, and wilderness shape policy, governance, rights claims, and social acceptance of transition pathways. 
• Co-produce knowledge with stakeholders and develop practical policy tools and recommendations that integrate cultural heritage into transition planning.  

Approach

The project integrates archaeological and paleoenvironmental data with social research, policy analysis, surveys, interviews, fieldwork, and participatory workshops. Drawing on the concept of path dependence, it examines how historical patterns of mobility, resource use, land management, and governance continue to shape contemporary conflicts, values, and environmental decisions. 

Three decision-making arenas receive particular attention:

• Renewable energy licensing and spatial planning in mountain areas.
• Governance of wild reindeer populations and protected landscapes.
• Participation and influence of local communities in transition processes

Expected Contribution

PAST2FUTURE seeks to move beyond viewing cultural heritage as a constraint on development and to establish it as a valuable source of knowledge for sustainability governance. By linking deep historical perspectives with present-day governance challenges, the project aims to equip policymakers, heritage managers, and local communities with better tools to balance ecological sustainability, social equity, and economic development. Ultimately, it aims to strengthen the legitimacy and public acceptance of Norway’s green transition.