The a-historical notion of a static wilderness nature remains pervasive in popular images, policy debates and landscape planning. This narrative impedes the very goals of conservation in terms of biodiversity protection, and the possibilities of economic and social equity for communities both in and around conservation areas and also more broadly in landscape planning. In the seminar, I will give examples of projects from Sweden, Sicily and Mozambique how landscape history and archaeology can contribute to a better understanding landscape change and better promote the combination of biodiversity goals with sustainable livelihoods. The pervasiveness of the wilderness image shows us how a story is never just a story. On the African continent, decades of revisionist work combining archaeology with climate- and vegetation history, has made us understand the scale and complexity of landscape changes. Despite this, landscape planning and restoration work still draw on strongly on the wilderness idea, resulting in a homogenisation of landscapes. Therefore, storytelling is a fundamental, albeit underappreciated, tool in dissemination to the public and to policymakers, as also a method for co-production of knowledge with and for local community. Our work joins the amassing chorus of works that realised the power of the narrative for writing multi-species histories that shows the entanglement and embeddedness of humans, fellow organisms and landscapes to promote feral proliferations.
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Anneli Ekblom is Professor in Archaeology and Global Environmental History at Uppsala University with an interest in landscape history and conservation. As an archaeologist by training, she has combined archaeobotanical and palaeoecological tools to reconstruct landscape history. Her research focused on relations between humans-nature ranging from the very physicality of landscape changes in flora and climate to conflicts and contestations when it comes to conservation and heritage. She is also part of the programme office of the organisation Integrated History and Future for People on Earth (https://www.ihopenet.org/) and runs an interdisciplinary master programme in Global Environment History.
Register: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAudeGvpz0pE9B8I9p2YRKvlJx9kZDHqLZA
