Who we are
The project gathers the multidisciplinary experience of 12 researchers from NIKU, NIVA, NIBIO, NRI and NINA. The research group represents disciplines ranging from sociology, ethnology, geography, archaeology, architecture, political ecology, environmental history, resource management, vegetation ecology and GIS engineering. We also have extended expertise in heritage policy, environmental management, outfield management, biodiversity, landscape analysis and methodology, technical building preservation and heritage monitoring.
Véronique Karine Simon, project leader
Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU)
Born and raised in the French Alps, I have a master’s degree in architecture from ENSAG (National School of Architecture in Grenoble) and a PhD in landscape architecture from NMBU (Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Ås). I have special expertise in landscape and place analysis, concept development and feasability studies. My research interest lies in the link between architecture, people and nature, with particular focus on vulnerable environments. I also have extensive experience in participation methods where the aim is to clarify and highlight the perceptions of the population of the environment they live in, human activities, and cultural and natural heritage.
Today, I work as a researcher at NIKU (Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research in Oslo). My research currently focuses on topics related to heritage and landscape values, contextual approaches and participation issues, including several National and European Commission projects, e.g. JPI-CH project CHeriScape.
Grete Swensen, assistant project leader
Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU)
Trained as ethnologist (cultural historian) with a PhD (doctor artes) from the University of Oslo (1996). Today I work as a senior researcher and have since I started in NIKU in 2000 acquired long experience as project leader, coordinator of a series of strategic research programmes, and as active researcher. My field of interest is the study of the relationship between people and the environment and comprise studies of cultural landscapes and the built environment in rural, suburban and urban areas. Recently I have primarily focused on cultural heritage as components of the current physical planning, including integration of cultural heritage in a vibrant urban development.
Torgrim Sneve Guttormsen, researcher and work package leader (wp2)
Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU)
I am an archaeologist and a research professor at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU). I have since my employment in NIKU in 2001 participated in various projects related to environmental monitoring, spatial planning, and cultural heritage values. I am leading the institute’s strategic research program on ‘Heritage Politics’ (2016-2020).
Frode Sundnes, researcher and work package leader (wp3 & wp9)
Norwegian institute for water research (NIVA)
I have international and interdisciplinary experience in the fields of sustainable development and the environment, with a particular focus on land rights, conflicts of interest, nature conservation and environmental management, in sub-Saharan Africa and Norway. My doctoral dissertation on political ecology and environmental history (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NMBU, Ås) is a study of how actors, discourses and material conditions interact in processes related to agrarian reform and nature conservation, and how this in turn affects local living conditions and landscapes. Based on a disputed forest area in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, the study addresses conflicts around land rights, nature and history related to a World Heritage site and a popular ecotourism destination. In my postdoctoral work, I worked on Norwegian protection policy and environmental management in a landscape and wild reindeer management study in Setesdal (Vesthei-Ryfylkeheiane, Norway).
I have been working as a researcher at NIVA since 2016 and I have been involved in a number of projects related to environmental and water management, with a focus on the history of the environment, urban waterways, historical water use, and on participation methods and knowledge production (land management, forest management, regulated rivers, water management in Norway).
Bolette Bele, researcher and work package leader (wp4)
Norwegian institute for bioeconomy research (NIBIO)
I am a vegetation ecologist and researcher at NIBIO (Norwegian institute of bioeconomy) in Trondheim. My research is focused on traditional and ecological land-use aspects of Norwegian cultural landscapes. More specifically, my main interests are traditional land use systems and traditional ecological knowledge connected to biodiversity and management of semi natural grasslands. Over several years I have focused on the summer farming landscape and utilization of outfield resources. In cooperation with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences I have studied grazing preferences of milk cows in the summer farming landscape and effects on biodiversity. I have also participated in an interdisciplinary research team who investigated what «terroir products» or products with local characteristics means in Norway. In cooperation with NIKU I participated in CheriScape (Cultural heritage in Landscape), a JPI funded project network leaded from Newcastle University. An ongoing Interreg project «Biological and cultural heritage for enhancing sustainable values» is in collaboration with Swedish Biodiversity Center (SLU) and Södertörn University, Stockholm.
Camilla Risvoll, researcher (wp7)
Nordland Research Institute (NRI)
I hold a ph.d. in sosiologi from Nord university and a master’s degree in International Environmental Studies from Noragric, NMBU, Ås. I engage with interdisciplinary research on impacts from climate change in combination with social and ecological forces of change affecting arctic communities. Particular emphasis on resilience and adaptive capacity in Nordic reindeer husbandry communities. I have been working as a researcher at NRI since 2015. I work on several projects, such as ForsøkVern: Følgeevaluering av forsøksordningen med partssammensatte nasjonalpark- og verneområdestyrer, and LocalCarnivore: Grazing Resources, Carnivores and Local Communities.
Edwin (Eddie) Schmitt, researcher (wp2)
Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU)
I am trained as an Environmental Anthropologist with a focus on applied, linguistic and historical topics. My past research interests included commodification of agriculture and cultural heritage, linkages between agricultural and religious systems, ethnic tourism and hydropower development in Southwest China. For my doctoral research I conducted ethnographic and survey-based research on environmental consciousness in the city of Chengdu. As a postdoc at the University of Oslo I examined how the historical production of energy is connected to the formation of and changes within the broader political power structures found throughout Chinese society. Since 2018, I have been developing a decision-making tool that would combine assessments of the socio-economic, bio-physical and geopolitical impacts of heritage sites into a single framework; the initial case studies of this project involve industrial heritage of Norway with a focus on mining. At NIKU, I am currently the lead coordinator of an interdisciplinary team of scientists from seven countries that builds on the insight of PARKAS to develop a project that critically investigates participatory and deliberative practices used to manage heritage and landscapes in an effort to make those practices more just and effective.
Jukka Nyyssönen, researcher
Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU)
Jeg er historiker, med dr.grad fra UiT – Norges arktiske universitet om samisk identitetspolitikk i Finland (2007). Jeg har forsket samisk historie bl.a. fra miljø-, utdannings-, vitenskaps- og dyrehistorisk vinkling. Bland mine forskningsinteresser er relasjonen mellom og forvaltningen av skogsbruk og reindrift i samiske bosettingsområder i Finland, miljø som identitetpolitisk ressurs for samisk etnopolitisk bevegelse, reinens posisjonering i forskning og Lappologiens historie. For PARKAS forsker jeg, med lang historisk forankring, forandringer i samiske opinioner om og ulike måter å ramme nasjonalparker i Inari, Finland, samt deres mandat i administrasjon av miljøvern.