The classic Scandinavian shieling consisted of a fenced site onoutlying lands with meadows and structures for dwelling,stabling livestock, and processing milk. Through dismantling ofrural, forested areas, competition for forest use andheritagization, shielings have been marginalized in today’sagrarian life and framed as relics of an outdated system. Shielingowners, like small-scale farmers all over Europe, face challengesincluding economic viability, loneliness in their work, anddifficulty recruiting new shieling workers. Surviving shielings (c.200 in Sweden) are valued as local development assets and areoften considered valuable for their rich biodiversity and heritage.As such, they are subject to conservation schemes that mayconflict with development ambitions. Heritagization has alsorecently been challenged by archaeological and palaeobotanicalresearch showing that shielings, in contrast to current relicframing, were highly adaptable to changing local economic andcommunity conditions over almost 2,000 years. Herein, researchwork, community development, nature conservation, andheritage management perspectives are synthesized in adiscussion of shielings’ past, present, and future, with a particularfocus on the shieling Kårebolssätern. Based on historical findings,suggestions include promoting silvopasture and retro-innovativefood production contributions to sustainable (post-)pandemicdevelopment and climate mitigation. The importance of apolitical ecology shift and fairer conditions for shielings, and themarginalized communities harboring them, are also highlighted.