Dr Ian D. Rotherham and colleagues are organising a major event on the theme of ‘Aspects of Commons and Cultural Severance in the Landscape’. The event will address topics fundamental to the conservation of these wonderful and iconic landscapes. It will cover the lessons of history and landscape change, of cultural change and abandonment. The conference will be international in flavour and cover issues from ecology and archaeology to modern-day management, and relating to history and cultural resonances. In particular, the conference wishes to raise critically important issues of cultural severance and abandonment of tradition in terms of sustainability, landscape quality and diversity.

This will be a significant event and the proceedings will be pre-published to be ‘out on the day’. It will have a major international dimension with leading researchers from around the world. There will be media interest too.

This international symposium will address:

• Issues of ‘cultural severance’ with the ending of traditional management and utilisation of landscapes and the separation of people from nature
• The uses and management of ‘commons’ now and historically and the consequences of the loss of subsistence uses or local ‘ownership’
• The ‘common’ uses of landscapes and environmental resources now and historically, from medieval coppice woods to deer parks, from alpine pastures to grazing meadows, from coastal flats to peat bogs and fens
• The impacts of changes from subsistence, often rural, communities and landscapes to technology driven agri-industry and urbanisation, and the consequences for local people
• The debates around perceived ‘re-wilding’ of natural areas or ‘abandonment’ and ‘dereliction’ of cultural landscapes
• Commons in the urban landscape

For booking forms please contact:

Conference Team, Hallam Environmental Consultants Ltd.
Tel: 0114 272 4227 - Email: info [at] hallamec [dot] plus [dot] com