We explore the tensions and dynamic connections between the place narratives of Faroese residents and those of Tourism Faroe Islands. Our findings demonstrate the need to shift from sense to senses of place in order to accommodate the multiple narratives of people–place relations, which are embedded in different standpoints on mobility and place change. Residents and brokers adopt different senses of place in order to respond to social and ecological pressures wrought by mobility, and the potential economic benefits of tourism growth and development. Concurrently, important relations exist among place meanings, one’s understanding of system variability and behavioural responses. Thus, senses of place emerge as a result of dynamic and complex relationships between different types of narratives on place that are constantly unfolding in response to social-ecological change.

Preface

We are living in an era in which human action has developed to be the main driver of global environmental change – the geological epoch of the anthropocene. One-third of terrestrial net primary production is now consumed by humans, and the material equivalent of about one and a half planets is claimed to support human activities. Planetary boundaries to irreversible climate change, biodiversity loss and changes to the global nitrogen cycle have already been transgressed. The terrestrial biosphere has been fundamentally restructured for agriculture and forestry, so that more than four-fifths of the Earth’s land surface is now human dominated.

The overall harmful consequences of humanity’s influence on global ecosystems in past decades are beyond doubt. However, the prevailing view on human–environment relationships is often overgeneralised. The conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment exemplifies an understanding of humans that degrade ecosystems, while their well-being critically depends on a sustained delivery of ecosystem services. As true as this perspective is, reducing humans to degrading agents and/or consumers of ecosystem services loses sight of the myriads of cases throughout the world in which land use systems and practices have shaped valued cultural landscapes, which effectively integrate ecology, economics and cultural needs. Fortunately, the idea of cultural landscapes has recently gained ground in science, policy and land use practice. For example, the notion entered the circles around the Convention on Biological Diversity, which now acknowledges that people have developed and sustainably managed outstanding landscapes over a long period. Examples for cultural landscapes that enhance both biodiversity and human well-being include the rice terrace landscapes of the Philippines, extensively used mountain grasslands in the European Alps and the dehesa agroforestry landscapes on the Iberian Peninsula.

Two views on values and changes of cultural landscapes

First-time visitors are fascinated by the traditional dehesa landscapes of Extremadura, the remote southwestern part of Spain (Figure 1.1). Gently rolling hills provide spectacular views of seemingly endless and undisturbed landscapes and wildlife. Globally threatened bird and mammal species such as the Spanish imperial eagle or the Iberian lynx strive over and through this landscape. Shepherds guide their flocks from winter to summer pastures, following historic routes of transhumance often over hundreds of kilometres. Local landraces of sheep, cattle and pigs; scenic stone walls; historic farm estates; ancient oak trees and other traditional landscape elements remind Northern Europeans and Americans of the losses in values that their native landscapes have suffered. All this is not a natural landscape feature, but the result of a ‘10 000 years love story’ between man and nature, as Blondel (2006) notes. The dehesa, which combines livestock husbandry, crop cultivation and management of Holm oaks and Cork oaks in an agroforestry system, is perfectly adapted to the local resource constraints imposed by the rough environmental conditions of a dry Mediterranean climate and shallow, acidic and nutrient-poor soils. Dehesas are described as the material expression of people having shaped their local landscapes in a sustainable way. It is hardly surprising that the dehesa landscape has become the embodiment of a traditional cultural landscape of high nature value in conservation policy and practice, but also in the general public.