Communicative Approaches to Restoration Ecology: a case study from Dovre Mountain and Svalbard, Norway

Extensive damage to the vegetation cover in arctic and alpine landscapes has raised the question of restoration as a possible management strategy. Restoration is a goal-oriented activity, a technological undertaking wider than its parent science of ecology. Social science and planning concepts and methods are necessary to handle the value judgements implicit in restoration. It is argued that the notion of 'desired state' is a better reference point in defining restoration goals than the notion of 'original state'. Using qualitative methods, two areas with vulnerable arctic/alpine vegetation are investigated. Based on participants' statements, four possible scenarios or desired states for future management are constructed. The main focus in the scenarios is on participants' attitudes to restoration activity, and it is shown how these are influenced by participants' attachment to the area and their view of nature.