The role of horse keeping in transforming peri-urban landscapes: A case study from metropolitan Stockholm, Sweden

ABSTRACT

The authors analyze sustainable cultural landscapes through the lens of ecosystem services. Their case study focuses on transformation of the peri-urban landscape of the Stockholm region, Sweden. Peri-urban landscapes are characterized by diversified and fragmented land uses that are strongly related to urban lifestyles. The rapidly increasing trend for recreational horse keeping is replacing traditional agriculture. Horse keepers’ and local government perspectives on horse keeping are examined, as well as the related demand for ecosystem services, which affects the landscape. The article is based on government documents, interviews with local government officials, and field visits to 16 horse-keeping facilities in two municipalities. Horse keeping was found important for sustaining cultural ecosystem services related to a rural cultural landscape and for maintaining traditional agriculture that provides provisioning ecosystem services. However, several differences between traditional agriculture and horse keeping that affect the demand for ecosystem services related to land use were found to shift the focus from provisioning services to recreational services. The authors conclude that horse keeping, as an emerging crosscutting issue in peri-urban landscapes, needs new more integrative planning processes that account for the full range of ecosystem services and links between cultural services and ecosystem functioning.

EDITOR:

• Hannes Palang, Catriona Turner

KEYWORDS:

• cultural landscapes
• ecosystem services
• horse keeping
• peri-urban planning

Acknowledgements

The study was funded by the Stockholm County Council (Stockholms läns landsting, SLL) and the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies. An earlier version of the manuscript was presented at the Nordic Geographers Meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, in June 2015. We thank the anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on the manuscript submitted for publication.

Notes

1. hastkartan.se, Hästnet, Svensk travsport, and Svensk Galopp

2. The authors are responsible for all translations of quotations into English.