Landscape Recourse Analysis (LRA) – a collaborative method for identifying forest values

Abstract

The modern society stand before widespread ecological and societal challenges including climate change and economic crises. To face these challenges, biomass from forests are an important resource for new products and innovations. This can help create job opportunities, economic development and increase overall sustainability. However, an increased outtake of biomass from forests will lead to mounting pressure of forest resources, ecosystems and biodiversity. This results in conflicting interests between using forest biomass for production versus conserving forests as functional ecosystems and for tourism, leisure, recreation and health. To manage forests in policy making, methods for identifying and communicating a variety of values in forest areas is needed. Here, a framework of a collaborative process for local place-based development, landscape resource analysis (LRA), was used in a small geographical area in norra Klarälvdalen, Sweden, to identify social aspects of landscapes including both material and immaterial values. The LRA process included local participants who shared their experiences and views of the forest values. The values identified were categorized using an ecosystem services framework. In addition, geographical information system (GIS) was used to map the material and immaterial values in the area, identifying potential conflicts of the forest use. By using LRA, a wide range of ecosystem services that are difficult to monetised can be identified and it is appropriate for gaining a greater understanding for the local context. The combination of landscape categorization identifying both material and immaterial forest values using GIS is important for decision-making and planning processes in forest landscapes.