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The Faro Convention underlined the importance of educational initiatives related to heritage. This paper focuses on the educational dimension of landscape, as a means to better facilitate its social acceptance and hence its inclusion in planning and management processes. The relation between landscape education and social perception, through a few European examples will be analysed to ascertain whether the principles of the Convention are being complied with effectively. The authors introduce four case studies of heritage-related education carried out in three European countries (Spain, Norway and Italy). These case studies provide the possibility to coherently analyse a wide range of activities and initiatives occurring at various scales and levels: geographic, local and sectoral. In addition, they describe the pedagogical potential of cultural landscapes and cultural heritage, and highlight some of the educational strategies and measures currently used in this field. Educational Strategies in Cultural Landscapes. Are we complying with the Faro Convention?

Mountain tourism depends intensively on the quality of the landscape. In recent years, the Norwegian Trekking Association has focused on local food products at their staffed lodges and it uses the slogan "eat the view." Such a strategy raises the focus on the agricultural use of the land and the quality of the products. Several Norwegian studies were carried out to investigate the quality of different mountain products and connections with vegetation types and grazing behavior. The results show that milk and meat products from animals grazing on alpine rangelands have improved quality compared to "normal" products. A healthier fatty acid composition and a higher content of secondary plant metabolites were characteristic of mountain products. Furthermore, grazing is of the utmost importance for the maintenance of open mountain landscapes and the biodiversity that is dependent on such landscapes. Maintaining traditional grazing systems also secures the preservation of traditional ecological knowledge about utilizing natural resources. Mountain tourism experiences could be improved and enhanced by documenting and telling the unique story of these complex connections between mountain landscapes, biodiversity, agricultural traditions, and local food products.

Nature conservation in Norway is based on the idea that wilderness and forest nature reserves should be left to develop naturally. Several studies show that forests have been influenced by human activities to a large extent. The article documents former land use practices in a boreal forest landscape in Nordli, Central Norway, and discussed the ecological consequences with respect to conservation. Traditionally, outfield resources were utilized for haymaking, pollarding, coppicing, grazing, and summer farming. Fodder harvesting methods were closely related to ecological conditions and the production level in the boreal forest landscape. Systematic burning to improve the forest pastures was a natural part of the traditional farming system. The forests were still utilized for grazing as late as 1973. In the ‘man-influenced’ landscape in Nordli, two boreal forest areas are protected due both to their wilderness character and the presence of native forest species. However, these nature reserves are parts of a...

Analysing forest history is crucial to understanding how shifting harvesting methods have different effects on forest landscape structure. Two main harvesting regimes in a Norwegian boreal forest landscape over a period of 150 years were detected by the study. A homogeneous impact regime resulting from selective logging changed the forest structure by logging the oldest and largest trees evenly throughout the forest, resulting in a homogeneous landscape structure. However, population growth in the 19th century led to a substantial increase in traditional subsistence forestry to obtain building materials, firewood, etc. The most intensive stage of this regime started in c.1860 when farmers began selling logging contracts to companies and timber traders. Despite this being termed a homogeneous landscape impact, the actual exploitation of the forest was strongly influenced by local factors such as the location of farms, summer farms, lakes, and rivers. Clear-cutting from the 1950s has resulted in a new heter...

Norwegian and Swedish populations of Carex capitata s. lat. were studied for variation in morphological characters. Canonical variates analysis (CVA) arranges populations in two discrete groups, corresponding to C. capitata s. str. and C. arctogena, respectively. In principal components analysis (PCA) of the total material a small overlap could be seen. However, separate PCA: s for the two regions in Scandinavia where the two taxa are sympatric show perfect separation. Student's t-test revealed significant differences in all morphological characters studied. Studies of companion plants, analysed with detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), indicate that the taxa have rather similar habitat demands in Oppland, Central Norway, although C. capitata s. str. seems to prefer wetter, and C. arctogena drier sites, respectively. Since the two taxa are distinct in morphology, they are best treated as separate species. The name Carex capitata is lectotypified.