Research on Transition to a Greener Society

PARKAS is a landscape-focused research project called Building trust to environmental policy as catalyst for a green transition, funded over four years (2018-2021) as a call of the Norwegian Research Council’s Environmental Research Program MILJØFORSK.

It is a collaboration between researchers from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), the Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), the Nordland Research Institute (NRI) and international research partners in Europe. Our aim is to promote and find solutions for a more integrated safeguarding of biodiversity, cultural heritage and other environmental goods, and to manage and enhance such environmental goods in ways that contribute to a green societal transition.

Our point of departure is that public trust is a necessity to political decision-making and management actions and is fundamental for achieving sustainability goals. We will study the management and public use of nature conservation areas through two concrete cases – Hardangervidda and Saltfjellet-Svartisen National Parks with their attached Landscape Protection Areas.