Towards a Future for Common Grazing - rules, norms and cooperation in outlying grazing areas

The Norwegian countryside is changing rapidly. The traditional users have become fewer, at the same time those who still exist operate in a completely different way to what the generations before them did. There has been a gradual monotonization of agriculture and, together with the extensive structural changes, where the number of active farmers decreased in parallel with the size of the farm increasing, the farmers' outfield use also changed dramatically. Perhaps this was what the Agricultural minister Lars Sponheim saw when he formulated his mantra "put the whole farm's resources into use". The commodification of the Norwegian countryside gained momentum during the multifunctional period for Norwegian agriculture. In the FUTGRAZE project, we have seen that against this background lies much of the origin of the challenges today's pasture farmers experience in the open fields. Increased traffic combined with a decreasing understanding of how one needs to behave in the open country where animals graze are putting an end to this huge investment in outdoor experiences that emerged in the early 2000s. Not only did the problems increase due to the fact that gates were left standing open, that outbuildings were pulled down and that stray dogs hunted sheep, but the pasture farmers also lost their political position when the local range policy had to be formulated. Because it is probably the biggest and most profound challenge for today's pasture farmers; the weakened social and political position locally as well as regionally and nationally. Because it is seldom that it is grazing in the countryside that is highlighted as the promising industry when the rural municipalities have to make their plans for the future. In contrast, completely different actors are further up the list, actors who also demand their share of the field. The provision of paths and trails together with the development of cabins and other development has been important in order to catch up in the competition for second home residents as well as casual visitors for a long time now. Local politicians as well as managers in the municipalities as well as in the regions rest on public reports and messages that give clear recommendations that open fields are an important resource in the development of new district industries. And the pasture farmers stand back and feel that they are ignored in the debate. As the challenges increase, the pasture users are increasingly alone in the work of informing and sanctioning rangeland users who break the public duties and make shared use of the rangeland difficult for the traditional users. Pasture farmers are experiencing increasing challenges linked to the recreational use of open fields. There are reports of an increasing problem with loose dogs and unrest in the grazing area. Other hikers, on the other hand - hikers without dogs - are not seen as a challenge, in return, several report that hikers without dogs can be positive for the pasture farmers. Typically, this involves hikers largely notifying the pasture farmers if they observe animals that are sick or otherwise in the outback. Cabin development can be perceived as problematic where the cabin construction comes close to good grazing areas and where the laying out of the track and path network does not take into account the needs of the pasture users. In areas where the development of huts and the arrangement of the path network are well planned and where the pasture farmers have been allowed to participate in the planning work, minor inconveniences are experienced as a consequence of the development of huts. There is great variation in how the different grazing groups are organized and how they operate. Where some collaborate closely with many joint activities linked to both the practical work as well as the social, others are more loosely organized with few joint activities. In pastures with a high level of activity and widespread cooperation, the pastures also appear to be an important well-being factor for pasture farmers and an arena for strengthening social capital. The research project FUTGRAZE suggests that the pasture farmers need to organize themselves better through, among other things, also using their grazing team as a professional-political body in local political processes. The municipalities need to strengthen the expertise of the pasture farmers on a daily basis and be aware of the consequences that various measures in the rangeland can and will have for the rangers in a temptation to find solutions that minimize the disadvantages and stimulate the most friction-free coexistence in the rangeland.

Prosjektet har vore med på å sette utfordringane beitenæringa står overfor på dagsordenen. Det har vore med på å løfte den offisielle samtala og legge til rette for ein betre dialog mellom ulike brukarinteressene i utmarka. Gjennom gode analysar av grunnlaget for det som har vore relativt djupe konfliktar mellom utmarksbrukarar har ein no sådd ein spire til å samarbeide snarare enn å motarbeide. På kommunalt så vel som på regionalt nivå arbeidar fleire med å lage betre prosedyrar for å ta omsyn til beite bruken når ein planlegg utbygging eller tilretteleggingstiltak i utmarka

In line with extensive structural changes in agriculture, increasing land pressure, commodification and commercialization of outfields, the management of common grazing areas has become far more complex the latter years. In some areas, the conflict level has grown so high that several farmers cannot bear the social strain of continuing with farming. Farmers tell about a long time with poorer cooperation both internally between pasture farmers and between pasture farmers and other stakeholders, a development that has gradually led to fewer grazing animals, lower grazing pressure and steadily increasing encroachment with subsequent loss of biodiversity. While in other areas the grazing pressure has become too high relative to the grazing resources. But at the same time, in other areas, the grazing associations has manage to handle the complexity despite huge challenges sometime bigger than in the areas where the cooperation have stranded. By studying different grazing areas with different governance structures and different types of ownership, this project will identify "best practices" and crystallize alternative ways of organizing, operating and managing pasture areas, with the purpose of reducing the conflict level between farmers that use the outfield for grazing as well as between farmers and other users of the outfield to ensure improved utilization of the grazing resources in the Norwegian outfields. The project aims at identifying how we best can handle the challenges from current changes in the outfields and secure grazing resources for future food production.