Den här rapporten sammanfattar Interregprojektet Biokulturellt arv och alternativ matproduktion (Biokuma). Projektet, som löpt från oktober 2020 till och med september 2022, är en del av Interregs Sverige-Norge-program. EU-programmet ger stöd till svensk-norska projektsamarbeten som utvecklar samhället inom olika insatsområden. I enlighet med prosjektets syfte har Biokuma bidragit til kunnskapsoppbygging som visar att alternative driftsformer i landbruket ivaretar og viderefører ett biokulturellt arv. Därmed bidrar den alternativa matproduktionen till omställningen till ett hållbart samhälle. De alternativa matproducenterna är dock främst intresserade av de gröna delarna av det biokulturella arvet. En förstärkning av kulturarvsperspektivet skulle med andra ord vara önskvärd för en effektivare reproduktion och förvaltning av det biokulturella arvet. Även när det gäller kunskapsöverföring, både i form av formella utbildningar och praktik, betonas ofta de gröna delarna av det biokulturella arvet. En annan problematik, påvisad i projektet Biokuma, är att de alternativa matproducenterna möter en rad utmaningar i sin verksamhet, och flera av dessa utmaningar utgör hot mot uthålligheten inom denna verksamhetsform. Något som i sin tur utgör ett hot mot den reproduktion av det biokulturella arvet som de alternativa matproducenterna står för. Det är arbetsintensivt att bedriva småskaligt jordbruk i samklang med naturen. Arbetet ger samhälleliga natur- och kulturmiljövinster som gårdsbrukaren oftast inte får betalt för. Försäljningsarbetet är också ofta tidskrävande och sker på en mängd olika sätt, till exempel genom Rekoring och torghandel, återkommande marknader eller matevent, gårdsbutiker, äggbodar, prenumeration, självplock, e-handel, detaljhandel, eget eller andras café eller restaurang. Även genom försäljning till förädlingsföretag och mathantverkare eller till storhushåll. Gårdarna kan även få inkomster från sitt gårdsbruk på andra sätt, exempelvis genom uthyrning av djur för slyröjning och markberedning, liksom naturvårdsarbete med kor i våtmarker och getter vid sätrar. I syfte att stödja uthållighet, utveckling och konkurrenskraft hos den alternativa matproduktionen och en robust och växande reproduktion av det biokulturella arvet har projektet tagit fram en rad rekommendationer. Rekommendationerna riktar sig till matproducenter, myndigheter och andra intressenter. Projektets resultat och rekommendationer sprids genom olika kommunikationskanaler i form av exempelvis vetenskapliga artiklar, en handbok, populärvetenskapliga texter, blogginlägg, filmer och inspelade presentationer, samt ett gediget erfarenhetsutbyte mellan matproducenter, myndigheter och annat branschfolk. Genom ett varierat kommunikationsarbete har resultaten från projektet spridits till en bred målgrupp i både Sverige och Norge, medan de vetenskapliga publikationerna når forskare även internationellt. I denna rapport presenterar vi projektets bakgrund och målsättning, organisation, de aktiviteter som genomförts, samt resultat och effekter av arbetet. Det gränsöverskrid-ande arbetet har haft en central roll i projektet. Då förhållandena för reproduktion av biokulturellt arv och alternativ matproduktion till viss del skiljer sig mellan Norge och Sverige har erfarenhetsutbytet mellan såväl forskare som alternativa matproducenter på både sidor av gränsen varit betydelsefullt för projektets resultat. I rapporten redogör vi för projektets gränsöverskridande mervärden samt arbetet med de horisontella kriterierna hållbar utveckling, jämställdhet mellan kvinnor och män och lika möjligheter och icke-diskriminering. Vi redovisar också viktiga nyckeltal i form av antal gemensamma natur- och kulturarv där insatser för ökad tillgänglighet och hållbart bevarande har genomförts inom ramen för projektet. På projektets hemsida, sola.kau.se/biokuma, hittar du samtliga publikationer och filmer som projektet resulterat i. Sidan uppdateras kontinuerligt efter projektslut allteftersom fler publikationer tillkommer.

This report summarises the Interreg project Biocultural heritage and alternative foodproduction (Biokuma). The project, which ran from October 2020 to September 2022,is part of Interreg’s Sweden-Norway programme. The EU program provides supportfor Swedish-Norwegian project collaborations that develop society in various fields ofaction. In accordance with the purpose of the project, Biokuma has contributed to thebuilding of knowledge that shows that alternative modes of operation in agriculturesafeguard and continue a biocultural heritage. Alternative food production thus contri-butes to the transition to a sustainable society. However, the alternative food produ-cers are mainly interested in the green parts of the biocultural heritage. In other words,a strengthening of the cultural heritage perspective would be desirable for a moreefficient reproduction and management of the biocultural heritage. Also when it comes to knowledge transfer, both in the form of formal training and practice, the green partsof the biocultural heritage are often emphasized. Another problem, demonstrated inthe Biokuma project, is that the alternative food producers face a series of challengesin their business, and several of these challenges pose threats to the sustainability ofthis form of business. Something that in turn poses a threat to the reproduction of thebiocultural heritage that the alternative food producers stand for. Small-scale farming inharmony with nature is labour-intensive. The work provides societal natural and culturalenvironmental benefits for which the farmer usually does not get paid. The sales workis also often time-consuming and takes place in a variety of ways, for example throughRekoring, outdoor markets, recurring markets or food events, farm shops, egg sheds,subscription, self-picking, e-commerce, retail, own or others’ café or restaurant. Alsoby selling to processing companies and food artisans or for institutional kitchens. Thefarms can also get income from their farming in other ways, for example by renting outanimals for clearing and land preparation, as well as nature conservation work withcows in wetlands and goats at pastures.

The aim of the article is to explore whether and how local civil society–grounded in bottom-up activities–responds to a top-down initiative with expectations of sustainable transformation. The focus of our research is the possible role of civil society organizations as agents in collaborations aiming for a forest-based bioeconomy. The research was conducted in a local area within the sparsely populated Swedish region of Värmland, characterized by a strong tradition of forestry. The study is explorative and uses qualitative methods: interviews with representatives of local civil society actors, participant observations of local meetings and workshops, and document analyses. Our results suggest that general policy expectations concerning the inclusion of civil society become vague when operationalized in documents at the regional level, and lack clarity concerning the roles expected from civil society. Civil society organizations (CSOs) contribute in a multitude of ways to local social, economic, and environmental sustainability. However, the inclusion of CSOs as full actors in collaborations requires a greater knowledge of the traditions and structure of Swedish civil society, as well as its conditions and challenges in different local contexts. 

This paper reconsiders the roles of actors in regional innovation systems in the context of transformative industrial change. Empirically, it draws on evidence from the Värmland region of Sweden, where regional innovation system actors, with partial funding from the Swedish Innovation Agency, are striving to build a bioeconomy upon the traditional forest-related industries. The main findings include that transformative industrial change adds a variety of responsibilities to regional actors, including the provision of change legitimacy, influencing the industry’s innovation directionality and achieving social acceptance for change. A combined perspective on sociotechnical transitions and path development in regional innovation systems theoretically informs the case. 

Landscapes rich in biocultural heritage are declining en masse acrossEurope. This is due to the effects of countryside depopulation and tolarge-scale, industrial agriculture. Landscape heritage and its associatedbiodiversity largely depend on pre-industrial agrarian management.Because authoritative conservation cares only for minor, more spectacular,landscape segments, other forms of everyday management of themore mundane biocultural heritage are needed. Herein, innovative,alternative food producers (i.e. environmentally and animal-friendlyfarmers) are investigated as potential stewards of biocultural heritage.The results show that alternative food producers contribute to newways of reproducing the biocultural heritage, albeit with greateremphasis on its ‘green’ side (e.g. biodiversity) than that of cultural heritage.They also face numerous challenges that threaten their businesses.

This paper examines two atypical sparsely populated regions and their experience implementing a strategy of forest-based bioeconomy through smart specialization. Smart specialization is increasingly promoted as an opportunity for green transformations. Indeed, its recent evolution from S3 to S4 is an effort to address environmental sustainability challenges alongside regional development. In this paper, we argue that one of smart specialization's early stages, the entrepreneurial discovery process (EDP), can help establish a basis for the green transformation of traditional industries located in sparsely populated areas. The EDP is a participations facilitate that gathers diverse actors interested in developing a common economic sector, mostly through innovation. We explain how multi-actor participation facilitate understanding innovation as a problem-solving process requiring the input of actors outside (but including) the firms. As the cases show, this can unlock the potential of place-based multi-actor interventions to identify and mobilize pre-existing conditions and resources that, when combined with a common agenda, can influence green path renewal. In our cases, those pre-existing conditions are a culture of collaboration, knowledge, infrastructure and access to natural resources. The common agenda is to transform the regional economy into a forest-based bioeconomy.

Today's societies face significant ecological and societal challenges, including climate change and economic crises. In this context, forests can be a useful resource for new innovations and products. However, increased out-take of forest resources can raise the pressure on common forest resources and increase already existing conflicts between e.g. forestry and production versus conservation. Herein, the objective of this paper was to explore a collaborative process, namely landscape resource analysis (LRA), as a tool to identify a variety of values and sometimes conflicting interests and to improve communication about these among different stakeholders by using maps and GIS. The method was applied to a small forest area, Norra Klarälvsdalen, in Värmland County, Sweden. The area hosts a variety of forest owners, firms and companies in different sectors and several voluntary organisations with interest in the local forest. The study showed that LRA in combination with GIS has the potential to add value to collaborative processes in local planning and forest decision making processes. Even though it is difficult to guarantee broad representation in collaborative processes, the LRA served to identify a wide range of values and conflicting interests among the local participants including as well immaterial, e.g. cultural ecosystem services, as material and monetary values in the forest area. It also served as a tool for social learning and put focus on local citizens perspectives and experiences in addition to ‘experts’ of forest landscapes.

Today’s societies face significant ecological and societal challenges, including climate change. Inthis context, forests can be a useful resource for new innovations and products which can leadto job opportunities, economic development in new sectors and greater sustainability. However,increased out-take of biomass also increase pressure on forest resources, ecosystems andbiodiversity. Conflicting interests increase between production and conservation of forests forrecreation, tourism and health. There is also a rural-urban imbalance with regards to the ruralforest resources. Many decisions regarding the use of the forests are made by decisionmakerseither in political bodies or companies located in urban areas often at considerable distancefrom the actual forests. Thus, there is a call for collaborative processes to identify and integrate arange of perspectives, interests and values in forests. This paper reports back from a project“Innovation for green transition in the forest” (www.ingoskog.org) where a collaborativeprocess for place-based development, landscape resource analysis (LRA), was used to addressthe social aspects of landscapes and to account for both material and immaterial values in theforest. LRA focuses on including stakeholders and local interests and knowledge. This methodwas applied to a small area, Norra Klarälvsdalen, in Värmland, Sweden where a workshopincluding 16 stakeholders resulted in the marking of subjective values on analogues maps. Thesemaps were digitized and together with data from geographical information systems (GIS) andArcGIS were used to visualize both material and immaterial values. Conflicting areas wereidentified and were discussed in a second workshop. This adapted LRA demonstrated thepotential to contribute local knowledge and thus add qualitative data to forest planning anddecision-making. It can also be used to address a wide range of stakeholder interests, including  95 | P a g eboth material and immaterial forest values, and is designed to capture cultural ecosystemservices that are often difficult to put a price on.

I projektet ”Biokuma – Biokulturellt arv och alternativ matproduktion” har vi undersökt om småskaligt, djur- och miljövänligt jordbruk kan vara en möjlig, vardaglig förvaltare av det biokulturella arvet. Vi har tittat närmare på några aspekter som rör dessa former av matproduktion i gränslandskapen Hedmark och Värmland. Projektet genomfördes under två år, oktober 2020 - september 2022, med stöd av Europeiska regionala utvecklingsfonden Interreg Sverige-Norge. Projektet var ett samarbete mellan Karlstads universitet, Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning och Høgskolen i Innlandet. Samarbetsparter var även Länsstyrelsen i Värmland, Skogsstyrelsen (Värmland-Örebro), Förbundet Svensk Fäbodkultur och utmarksbruk, Föreningen Värmlands Säterkultur, Hedmarken Landbrukskontor, Innlandet fylkeskommune ved Jønsberg videregående skole samt en ressursperson innenfor norsk seterkultur.