THE CONFERENCE IS CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
How can we balance the multiple needs of land use in the Nordic region? Nordic Agri Research (NKJ) and Nordic Forest Research (SNS) invite you to a conference where challenges and opportunities in land use will be discussed from both research and policy perspectives.
The Nordic Land Use Conference
– solutions for sustainable land use in the Nordic region
Place: Hótel Varmaland, Borgarnes, Iceland
Time: May 7, 2025
Programme: scroll down
The conference aims to engage researchers and civil servants in a dialogue on national policy needs related to land use. Therefore, participants from the political sector, research organizations, and other relevant stakeholders are welcome.
The program will begin with a presentation of the upcoming report “Changes to Agricultural Land Use in the Nordic Countries – and Future Prospects for Collaboration”, providing an overview of changes in land use and future opportunities for collaboration. This will be followed by keynote speakers who will delve into the conference’s overarching theme.
The conference will then continue with thematic sessions that delve deeper into current issues. These sessions will bring together research projects and policy examples from the Nordic countries, with discussions led by experienced moderators to foster a dynamic and constructive dialogue.
Don’t miss the opportunity to participate in this important conference and contribute to the development of more sustainable land use in the Nordic region!
Register here THE CONFERENCE IS CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Registration fee is 1.500 SEK and includes lunch, conference refreshments and a three course dinner.
Target group
Developers or owners of concrete examples within the themes and current and potential users of them (this includes researchers, state officials, municipal workers, interest groups, intergovernmental organisations and private land owners, primarily in the Nordic region).
Preliminary program:
09:00–09.30 Registration
09:30–09:45 Opening statement
09:45–10.00 Presentation of report and purpose of conference
10:00–10:45 Keynote speaker 1
10:45–11.00 Coffee break
11:00–11:45 Panel discussion: The role of land use planning in preparedness
12.00–13.00 Lunch and networking
13.00–15:00 Thematic session 1 & 2 (parallel), see information below
15:00–17:00 Thematic session 3 & 4 (parallel) see information below
17.15 – 17.45 Conclusions & sum up
18:30 Networking dinner
Thematic sessions
Each thematic session will engage the participants in a discussion on solutions and challenges to get there within the chosen topic. The session will begin with 2-3 presentations of best practices, tools and models which will be followed by a workshop.
Thematic session 1
Managing conflicting policy goals in land use management – Energy production
Description: The first two sessions will look into different tools, models and conclusions made from different parts of the Nordic region on how to handle conflicting policy goals and how various considerations and land-use interests can be balanced. This session will specifically focus on photovoltaics, how they can co-exict within landscapes, strategies and guidelines for handling the increased demand for photovoltaics.
Thematic session 2
Managing conflicting policy goals in land use management – functional landscapes
Description: The first two sessions will take a look into different tools, models and conclusions made from different parts of the Nordic region on how to handle conflicting policy goals and how various considerations and land-use interests can be balanced. This session will specifically focus on functional landscapes, for example the potentials of increasing biodiversity within a production landscape and steering instruments to prioritize between different national and international policy goals.
Thematic session 3
Spatial tools to support decision- and policymaking
Description: Spatial data, analysis and models can offer knowledge foundation to make decisions in high complexity situations. This session includes how to meet the challenge of data security, potentials of combinations of spatial data and sources and investigating how the establishment of the EU soil monitoring can be utilized for land use planning.
Thematic session 4
Multistakeholder dialogues in land use planning
Description: Dialogues can serve as a powerful tool to balance private and public interests in land use and to increase acceptance for land use changes amongst actors within a landscape. Improved cooperation between different stakeholders can also increase the likelihood that synergies in land use are exploited. This session explores local examples of stakeholder dialogues in the Nordic region and looks into the results and key learnings of them, to ultimately consider how these models and tools can be scaled or transferred to other parts in the Nordic region.
Organisers
Nordisk Kommitté för Jordbruks- och matforskning (NKJ) and SamNordisk Skogsforskning (SNS) / funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers
Background
During the Nordic Committee of Senior Officials for Fisheries, Aquaculture, Agriculture, Food and Forestry (EK-FJLS Agriculture and Forestry) meeting in Hardanger in April 2022, land use conflicts related to food production and agricultural land were discussed. The committee members recognised that agricultural and arable land is a limited resource, and that strategies and political guidelines to limit agricultural land loss and ensure food security while also ensuring that other national needs are met differ among Nordic countries. Following this discussion, Nordic Agri Research (NKJ) and Nordic Forest Research (SNS) were assigned to provide the committee with further knowledge on the situation of agricultural land and how agricultural land use disputes are handled in the Nordic countries. The results from this upcoming report form the foundation for this conference.