Photos: hazel nut harvest, fragile spruce monoculture, walnut tree, southern Sweden.

ABOUT: Reciprocal knowledge reinforcement among practitioners in Finland and Sweden about nut crops and non-fenced and diverse nut crop systems in symbiosis with/inviting wildlife and/or using grazing as a management method to enhance biodiversity and strengthen food security. Mediate the understanding among the public how such nature-based food systems can mitigate biodiversity-loss, species-extinction and cope with extreme weather while, at the same time, render a reliable side income from nuts and hunting opportunities.

Nut crops: In both Finland and Sweden our ancestors have evolved together with native hazelnut stands for thousands of years. Many of our grainfields used to be hazelnut groves, before farmers cleared them for the cultivation of annual crops. These semi-wild meadows were browsed by wildlife and later grazed by livestock. This project reminds us of this ancestral bond with nut crops, revitalises the sense of cultural continuity and opens a door to a sustainable future: Integrating nut crops like hazelnuts, sweet chestnuts and walnuts into tree meadows, thinned out forests and forest edge zones ("close to nature agroforestry" refering to the concept "close to nature forestry") can enhance biodiversity, food security and create wildlife habitat/refugia. An approach that could create multifunctional, robust and edible landscapes, but require policy changes to integrate into Swedish agricultural and forestry regulations.

"Close to nature agroforestry" A transition from spruce monocultures: Since the 1960s, landowners in Sweden have received subsidies to plant spruce monocultures on arable land and pastures, profoundly changing the landscapes and reducing biodiversity in large parts of southern Sweden. A shift towards sustainable forestry by converting these stands to diverse, native forests, using or not using grazing as a tool, could offer both economic, food security and ecological advantages.

Research: A growing body of literature from rural sociology, agroecology and conservation biology suggests that forestgrazing and silvopastoralism have great potential to enable multifunctional forest and meadow management and that this will play a key role in the mitigation of climate change, biodiversity loss, and securing national sovereignty in terms of food and fibre.

Pastoral practice & forest grazing: The Swedish traditional pastoral practice “fäbobruk” was recently inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Such forest grazing is often considered the most efficient, and was once the most common practice of agroforestry in Sweden. In the form of secluded summer farmsteads of the North, livestock grazed freely and dairy products were crafted by hand, often managed by women, and was a significant part of Sweden’s rural economy. Could this kind of practice, with new influences, from example European nut orchards in combination with grazing, become an inspiring possibility for forest owners in southern Sweden?