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This paper offers novel insights into the complex relationships between everyone’s right-to-roam in natural landscapes and forest conservation in urban contexts. It evolves from a study of Østmarka, a boreal woodland on the outskirts of Oslo, which is frequently used for recreation and was recently transformed into a National Park. Ethnographic methodology, combining field observations and investigations of documents published throughout the decision-making process, from the launch of the idea in 2012 by a local Friends of the Forest Association, to the park's opening in 2024 by the Minister of Climate and Environment. The textual materials include media articles, policy documents, consultative research reports, proposals on law and management, and hearing statements. The research question examines the effects of establishing a national park within an urban forest on residents' right-to-roam and perceptions of human-forest relationships. Social-ecological landscape theory frames the investigation, emphasising the socio-political construction and alteration of landscapes by highlighting the dynamic, intertwined human-forest relationships. The main findings indicate few impacts on the practical rights-to-roam. However, the NP-legislation introduces a spatial hierarchy of natural values and landscape qualities that reshape human-forest perceptions and relationships, creating contested feelings of belonging. Symbolically, the NP appears to enhance the area’s social status and to confirm Norway's commitment to nature-based recreation and forest protection by establishing a large NP near the capital city.
References:
Gurholt, K. P. (submitted February 2026). Public Rights-to-Roam and Forest Protection: Impacts of Østmarka National Park, Oslo, Norway. To: Lund, K. A. & Granås, B. (eds.), Public Access and ‘Everyone’s Right’ in the Nordic Countries: Histories of Belonging. (pp. XX—xx). Palgrave Studies in World Environmental History.
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