Nature conservation has for a long time been founded on the assumption that high ecological values depend on low human impact. In Sweden this has led to forests with these characteristics being strictly protected from human influences. However, it is also known that historical land-use can enhance ecological values in forests. Mountainous forests in Sweden, which have not been affected by modern forestry, have for a long time been considered as untouched by people. However, forest history research has in recent years shown that even these areas have been used by people for a long period of time.

Modern forestry management may disadvantage some mykorrhiza forming fungi because; they are dependent on late successions and cannot survive the constantly recurring breaks in the continuity of their host tree. For this study the specie goliatmusseron (Tricholoma matsutake) was chosen to investigate this possibility. In Sweden T. matsutake is found in greatest amounts north of Örnsköldsvik on glacifluvial sandy soils in association with pine trees and Reindeer lichens. Seventy two forest stands where the specie previously had been found were studied; 62 in the northern part of Sweden and ten in the southern. Several indicators were studied to find out if these stands have had a continuity of living trees.

Lichens are adapted to bright and sparse forests on oligotrophic ground. Due to a slow growth rate and high light demand lichens will suffer from competition in eutrophic environments. Therefore, lichens have disappeared from managed forests where the forest industry has increased the productivity. A reduced abundance of lichens will affect both biodiversity of the forest and the Reindeer winter graze lands. It is important to understand how and for how long fertilization affects the abundance and diversity of lichens in order to protect lichen rich ecosystems. We have registered the biomass and number of lichen species in eight plots (four nitrogen rich and four nitrogen deficient) and compared fertilized Sami settlements with their oligotrophic surroundings in the nature reserves of Tjeggelvas.

People have used forest resources in northern Sweden for different purposes. Before the 20th century the forest was used for many different reasons, but during the past 200 years it has become an industrial raw material. The presence of people in the forest has left different kinds of traces in the forests. One example is culturally modified trees (CMT´s). The aim of this study was to study and document how people have used the forest resources during the last centuries in Brännlidens nature reserve, and what kind of traces this land use has left.

Humans have inhabited mountainous areas in northern Sweden since the end of the last glacial period, ca 8000 B.P., and their presence has marked the landscape in various ways. Older traces include the remains of hearths and dwelling sites, but there are also remains, such as culturally modified trees (CMT's), resulting from more recent activities in forested areas. This study aimed to document how people, both indigenous Sami's and Swedish settlers, have used an area northwest of Ammarnäs in Västerbotten, during the last 300 years, and what traces their activities have left in the area. I used historical records as well as an inventory of CMT's in the area to address this aim. Historical records of Sami activity are meagre, but it is clear that the people of the Ran and Gran Sami villages utilized the area long before 1500 A.D.

What happens when historical theories are used as evidence in a trial? Is it possible for historians to use their own scientific tools when acting as participants in a juridical process? And how do judges deal with historical evidence? The aim of this study is to answer these questions by analyzing a specific trial, known as ?Härjedalsmålet?. Härjedalsmålet was a court case about the Sami people?s right to let their Reindeer graze on private property grounds in Härjedalen during the winter season. Their claim to this right was based on prescription of time immemorial.

This study departs from Gállok, an area 40 kilometres northwest of the city Jokkmokk, in northern Sweden. This is a place to which local people and Saami Reindeer herders have material interests and emotional bonds. The mining company JIMAB wants to prospect for extracting minerals from this area. In the summer of 2013 local people, Saamis and environmental activists gathered in Gállok in order to protest and make resistance against these plans. Activism was made, debate articles were written, demonstrations were organized and information about what was going on in Gállok was shared through social media.The aim of this study is to examine the cultural processes of the anti-mining movement, in particular the happenings in Gállok in summer 2013.

This thesis examines the everyday resistance, and its interaction with cultural hybridity, of the Saami population in the administrative unit of Torne lappmark during the period 1639?1732. To do this, the thesis uses theoretical concept of everday resistance as it has been described by JamesC. Scott and the theories of cultural hybridity as they have been described by Peter Burke. Primary source material used in this thesis consists of the court records from Torne lappmark, specifically from the courts at Jukkasjärvi and Enontekis.The results of this thesis present a picture of the everyday resistance in early modern Torne lappmark.

Det pågår idag två samhällsomvandlingar i norra Sverige, i Kiruna och i Malmberget, till följd av den expanderande gruvverksamheten där omlokaliseringen kräver att ytterligare mark tas i anspråk. Speciella omständigheter råder i Kiruna där särskilda skydd och bestämmelser föreligger som en följd av den juridiska odlingsgränsen. Syftet med studien är att ge ett brett perspektiv på den unika odlingsgränsen och visa på sambandet mellan den och förvärv statlig mark vid samhällsomvandling. För att uppnå syftet utreddes odlingsgränsens historia, samhällsomvandlingarna och riksintressen samt markförvärvsprocessen och hur denna kan förbättras. Metoderna som användes var litteraturstudie, kvalitativa intervjuer och besök gjordes på plats i Kiruna och i Malmberget för att fördjupa kunskaperna.Staten började ta över en stor del av förvaltningen av den skyddade marken redan på 1500-talet och uppmuntrade en inflyttning till norra Sverige.

This thesis examines the everyday resistance, and its interaction with cultural hybridity, of the Saami population in the administrative unit of Torne lappmark during the period 1639?1732. To do this, the thesis uses theoretical concept of everday resistance as it has been described by JamesC. Scott and the theories of cultural hybridity as they have been described by Peter Burke. Primary source material used in this thesis consists of the court records from Torne lappmark, specifically from the courts at Jukkasjärvi and Enontekis.The results of this thesis present a picture of the everyday resistance in early modern Torne lappmark.

Meat and fish was the most important food for the Sami people in northern Scandinavia until the beginning of the 20th century. It is not so well known that the Sami people also used a lot of wild plants as food and medicine although that kind of food was relatively common among them until the end of the 19th century. The purpose of this master thesis has been to describe which plants the Sami people used in general and also which plants were the most commonly used, and when and how these plants were harvested. I also wanted to measure the quantities of Angelica archangelica and Rumex acestosa within traditional harvest sites. Furthermore I wanted to find out if the plant use differed among Sami groups geographically.

I de norra delarna av Sverige bedrivs skogsbruk och rennäring på samma marker. Detta kan i flera fallleda till intressekonflikter. Marklavar är en viktig del av renarnas vinterfoder. Mycket marklav förstörs vid slutavverkning, både av maskinerna vid avverkningstillfället och senare vid markberedningen. Den återstående laven täcks delvis av avverkningsrester och är därför inte tillgänglig för renbete.

Enligt § 20 i skogsvårdslagen (1979:429) skall berörd sameby beredas tillfälle till samråd då en föryngringsavverkning med efterföljande åtgärder samt avverkning för byggande av skogsbilväg skall ske inom åretruntmarkema1. Skogsägare som är FSC­ certifierade2 skall inom hela renskötsel området, enligt FSC-standard, bereda berörd sameby tillfälle till samråd om skogsvårdsåtgärder samt avverkning för byggande av skogsbilväg och där visa den hänsyn som följer av skogsvårdslagen. Idag sker samråd mellan rennäring och skogsbruk i varierande omfattning och med varierande resultat som följd. Då en skogsägare skickar en ansökan till skogsvårdsstyrelsen om tillstånd för avverkning, skall berörd sameby, enligt lag, ha beretts tillfälle till samråd och därmed skall tillhörande samrådsprotokoll bifogas tillståndsansökan. Vid en vanlig avverkningsanmälan är det frivilligt men storskogsbruket bifogar ofta samrådsprotokoll ändå.

The purpose of this thesis is to show how a good approach can be designed, focusing on the southern approach to the Swedish town Vilhelmina. Prior to the car being part of everyday life, the approach was a road where the town showed itself from the very best side. When the amount of traffic increased, so did noise and other disturbances, and as a consequence industrial areas replaced the residential buildnings at the approaches. Today, the pendulum is turning back and in recent years the approach is regarded as a place to introduce the town. The approach is also the place where cars should slow down from the speed of the main road to the speed of the city.

Biodiversity is under threat in Sweden and many species are on the brink of extinction. This is mainly due to the large-scale drainage projects during the 19th and 20th century and the increasingly intensive land use in agriculture and forestry. The intensive land use with sharply defined boundaries between the production units has in many cases led to either overgrazing or overgrowing. As a result many species have been pushed back to "leftover" habitats like shooting ranges, power line corridors, roadsides, dumps, embankments and other similar areas. Therefore the question has been raised, wether or not it is needed to re-introduce large herbivores into the wild in order to maintain the biodiversity that is related to the extensive land use.This study has been conducted as a literature review and will focus on the European bison?s (Bison bonasus) impact on other species and biodiversity; conditions for reintroducing large herbivores in Sweden are also discussed.Free roaming populations of large herbivores have a positive impact on plants, insects and many other groups of organisms.