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Industrially harvested peatlands and after-use potential: Understanding local stakeholder narratives and landscape preferences
Author(s)
Date Issued
2008-08
Date Available
2012-12-05T16:15:56Z
Abstract
Recent years have witnessed much debate on the turn towards community within landscape management and planning. This is particularly evident in the European Landscape Convention which asserts the legitimacy of local preferences and citizen involvement in policy processes. This paper explores a bottom-up perspective on people-place relationships in a changing landscape, through assessing the after-use potential of industrially mined peatlands in Ireland and the rehabilitation of degraded landscapes. The mining of the peatland resource has a longstanding tradition in Ireland, however, significant attention has now focused on exploring market and non-market uses of remains after harvesting has finished resulting in a cutaway landscape. We argue that local people's everyday experiences of the landscape is a legitimate form of knowledge and should provide a key input into deliberative planning and management processes. Drawing largely on an interpretive research approach, we assess key local narratives in relation to harvested peatland landscapes and explore local people's after-use preferences. There appears to be strong support among the local community for amenity/biodiversity after-uses, which are currently not reflected in public policy debates. We review people-place relationships and discuss the role of ethnographic research in a peatland context as well as defining the relevant stakeholders. Finally, conclusions are developed to identify wider lessons for people/place relationships within the context of landscape management and planning.
Type of Material
Journal Article
Publisher
Routledge
Journal
Landscape Research
Volume
33
Issue
4
Start Page
439
End Page
460
Copyright (Published Version)
2008 Landscape Research Group Ltd
Subject – LCSH
Peatlands--Public opinion
Landscape assessment
Ethnology
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0142-6397
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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