NATURICE - Changing social and cultural values of nature: Exploring plural values of human-nature relationships in glacierized environments

Biodiversity loss and climate change are inseparable challenges which have to be addressed together.

This project’s main purpose is to examine how values and human-nature relationships are affected by these two challenges through a trans-regional study of glacierized environments in Scandinavia and the Himalayas. Around the world, glaciers have been retreating at unprecedented rates.

Glaciers affect people and societal relations worldwide on many levels, whether by influencing mountain ecosystems, providing water for drinking and agriculture, generating hydroelectric energy, determining safety for downstream communities, or driving tourism economies and other types of livelihoods.

Furthermore, glacial retreat is projected to increase floods, avalanches, landslides, and ground destabilization, which will lead to increased risk for infrastructure, as well as for cultural, tourism, and recreational assets.

Within this background, this project asks an overall research question:In what ways does climate related glacier retreat affect human-nature relations and plural values of nature across glacierized sub-regions of the Scandinavia and the Himalayas?

The project responds to FORMAS’ call for integrated knowledge of climate change, ecosystems and society, and addresses the need for in-depth study of the human-nature relationship by crossing boundaries between different research fields ecosystem services and valuation, political ecology and glaciology.