Response to interpellation 2025/26:40 on the protection of the forest-Finnish cultural and agricultural landscape
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the protection of forest Finnish cultural and cultivation landscapes. M argues that the government has increased the appropriations for cultural heritage management and that the county administrative boards have received extra funds to hire staff to care for culturally and historically important environments 1 2. M emphasizes that the authorities are best positioned to assess which environments should be protected as they possess local expert knowledge 3 4. SD argues that the pace of establishing new cultural reserves has stalled alarmingly and that none have been established since 2017 5 6 7. SD wants the government to inform the county administrative boards about the situation in order to increase the pace 6 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Mr. Speaker! Runar Filper has asked me if I and the government intend to encourage county administrative boards and municipalities to establish more cultural reserves to protect the contiguous forest Finnish settlement and cultivation environments in the countryside that have weak or no protection.
It is important for the government that there are conditions to preserve, use and develop a diversity of cultural environments. The granting of subsidies in this area is an important part of this. In order to create better conditions for the care and development of cultural environments, the government has strengthened the appropriation for cultural heritage management by 30 million kronor during the period 2024–2026.
The Government has, in the autumn budget for 2025, strengthened the county administrative boards' possibilities to carry out measures within the framework of the work with culturally and historically valuable buildings and environments, for example within building preservation, landscape preservation, and the cultural environment in general. For this work, 16 million kronor were added to the county administrative board during the current year.
Legislation is also an important part in the preservation of cultural environments. The Swedish National Heritage Board and the County Administrative Boards have a special responsibility for the cultural environment. The Swedish National Heritage Board is responsible for designating areas of national interest for cultural heritage conservation according to the Environmental Code. There are examples of Finnish settlement areas that are designated as areas of national interest, for example, the open agricultural landscape at Skålsjön in Gävleborg County.
The Environmental Code also enables a county administrative board or a municipality to declare a land or water area as a cultural reserve in order to preserve valuable culturally shaped landscapes, for example, the cultural reserve Juhola finngård.
When it comes to making decisions on which individual cultural environments shall be covered by protection measures, the government has delegated to the authorities to make these assessments.
The Government follows both the authorities' work and the issue of ensuring that valuable cultural environments are given the right conditions to be preserved for future generations.
Runar Filper (SD)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for Culture for the answer.
The County Administrative Board and the municipalities can, according to the Environmental Code, decide that particularly valuable cultural landscapes shall be protected as cultural reserves. The purpose of the reserves is to be able to care for and preserve valuable culturally shaped landscapes.
The starting point is that the state, via the County Administrative Board, is responsible for coordinating the funding of the maintenance in state-decided cultural reserves, while the municipality normally is responsible for the funding of the maintenance in municipally-decided reserves.
At present, there are no specific government grants for the maintenance of cultural reserves, but the majority of all maintenance is funded via the cultural environment grant, which the Minister has accounted for here. Investments in the cultural reserves are weighed against other pressing interventions within cultural heritage conservation. The manager, the landowner, or the principal can, however, secure alternative funding for the maintenance in addition to the cultural environment grant. This can involve various grants, support within the EU's rural development programs, voluntary work, which is very common, or other forms of grants.
The cultural landscape, particularly in northern and western Värmland, consisted of many Finnish farms after the Finnish migration from primarily Savolax and Tavastland began in the late 1500s.
Three characteristic buildings are distinctive for a Finnish farm: the smokehouse, the granary, and the sauna. These are an important part of Värmland's cultural heritage and are therefore important to preserve together with the cultivated land adjacent to the Finnish farm.
The Skogsfinns' large-scale slash-and-burn farming and the cultivation of slash-and-burn rye were something new and represented an opportunity to use virgin forest land for cultivation. For this purpose, a spruce forest area was selected, preferably on a south-facing slope. Spruce thrives on nutrient-rich soil, and it was therefore the best land for slash-and-burn farming.
Early in the spring the trees were felled, and the felled wood was then left to dry for one or two years. In the third year, the slash was burned, and when the ash had cooled somewhat, the slash rye was sown sparsely over the burned area. One grain of rye under a birch shoe was a good measure.
Already that same summer, small rye tufts grew up. The plants overwintered until the following year, when they grew with perhaps 30–40 stalks in each tuft. They could become nearly two meters high. In late summer or early autumn, the rye was harvested. In good years, these svedjes could yield up to a hundredfold return, that is to say, 1 liter of seed could yield 100 liters of harvest. This can be compared with ordinary grain fields in the Finnish forest, which gave perhaps a fourfold harvest. Even if the svedje harvest failed in some years, one can understand that it was an important cultivation method for the forest Finns.
The disadvantage of slash-and-burn agriculture was that one only obtained one or two harvests in the same location. Slash-and-burn agriculture therefore required access to large areas of land because it took many years before the area could be burned again. The regrowing slash-and-burn areas could, however, be used as grazing land and for hay harvesting for winter fodder for the livestock.
Many of the remaining finnshards have still intact buildings and original inland areas that are managed through annual haymaking, so-called lieslåtter, and grazing animals. It is these that should become or be converted into cultural reserves in the first instance. The pace for the formation of cultural reserves has, after all, slowed down considerably compared to how it was intended when that form was decided upon in 2000.
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Mr. Speaker! Fundamentally, I believe we agree that our culturally and historically important environments in Sweden are worth protecting. They need to be protected through active management, and this shall be made possible in various ways through grants and different types of protection regulations.
Today we have an administrative model that works relatively well and which I can state has been quite successful, given Sweden's size. There is a flora of protection mechanisms that the authorities can apply in different areas, and I believe that based on their local knowledge and expertise, they can best make assessments of what is extra worthy of protection.
This is quite clearly an issue that I believe we all cherish. I am pleased that the issue of our cultural environments is higher on the agenda now than before and that we have an active effort, not least from our authorities, to safeguard our culturally and historically important environments.
I do, however, believe in the model. It is a good management model that we need to safeguard. The Government has chosen a model where the authorities, who after all are closest to these environments, are allowed to decide what should be protected and how, in the absolute best way.
Runar Filper (SD)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for Culture again for the answer.
Mainly Finnish settlements and Finnish lands are not only in Värmland but also, especially, in Dalarna, Gävleborg and parts of Västernorrlands län. These areas are already in several cases nature reserves, which in a literal sense have the same protection as cultural reserves, which are managed to preserve the building stock, hay meadows as well as flora and fauna and so that their inland areas shall be cultivated through annual tradition, so-called lieslåtter.
There are many places that contain this historical cultural environment but which have weak or no protection through the Cultural Environment Act. It can be mentioned that there is only one Forest Finn cultural reserve in the entire country, and it is the Värmland Juhola finngård, which the Minister mentioned, with farm buildings as well as associated land consisting of field, meadow, and forest, totaling 46 hectares in size.
The designation cultural reserve shall be used when the cultural environment is the primary reason for an area to be protected. The form of protection shall be seen as a complement to the provisions on nature reserves and to the rules of the Cultural Environment Act. So says the Swedish National Heritage Board.
The cultural environment includes, in addition to the meadowland, the finngård with its previously described building stock. The first cultural reserve was formed in 2000, and it was established that the need for new cultural reserve formations was palpable. The pace of the formation has, however, been slowed down, as I said.
The number of nature reserves today amounts to more than 4,000, and new reserves are being added at a rapid pace. At the same time, there are only 49 cultural reserves in Sweden, of which 37 have been decided by county administrative boards and 12 by municipalities. The pace, as mentioned, has stalled alarmingly, and I do not believe that any cultural reserve has been established since 2017. I think it would be very worthwhile if the government, which has done so much good, could enlighten and inform the county administrative boards about the situation.
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Mr. Speaker! When it comes to the County Administrative Boards, I would like to take the opportunity to once again highlight what we are doing during the current year. It concerns the 16 million that the government has provided so that the County Administrative Boards will have the opportunity to hire during the year.
It is about employing both newly graduated and unemployed persons to work with culturally and historically important environments. It can be buildings, but it can also be environments. It can be about building conservation or landscape conservation, but also about the cultural environment in general within the framework of the ongoing work that the County Administrative Board performs.
This is an ongoing work, and the government intends to follow up on it to see how it functions. I can only say that we are receiving extremely positive preliminary signals that the work has already made a great difference for the county administrative boards' cultural heritage conservation work. It is naturally positive, not only because people can be put into employment in this way but also because the employment becomes so meaningful since it concerns taking care of our common heritage.
This is a way to strengthen the county administrative boards in their work with our important cultural environments, which we all have a responsibility to preserve for posterity.
Runar Filper (SD)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
I am fully aware of the Minister's and the Government's position in my question. I know that we agree in broad strokes. But I still hope and believe that, for the purpose of clarification, one can remind authorities and county administrative boards that the pace of the formation of cultural reserves has slowed down alarmingly compared to what the intention was from the beginning, when it was noted that the need for new cultural reserve formations was palpable. As has been said, no cultural reserves have been formed at all lately. This was actually my aim with the debate.
I know that we are in agreement. I know that the government has done an enormous amount of good, and I am grateful for that.
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to take this opportunity to thank the member for the interpellation. This is an important issue, and I share the commitment to the preservation of our culturally and historically significant environments in Sweden.
The forest-Finnish cultural and cultivation landscapes are in no way exempt from this commitment, and it is quite clearly present in both of us. As I have mentioned before, however, I do not believe that I, as Minister for Culture, should interfere in what types of environments should be covered by different types of protection. That is also why the government has judged that it is better for the question to lie with the authorities. But the commitment – that we have!
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.