Danish Farmers and the Cultural Environment

Landscape management is a well-known and much-debated issue in socalled “modern welfare” societies. the management of landscapes within these societies is usually in the hands of state or council employees, but is almost always put into practice by local farmers, who have used the landscape for agricultural purposes for thousands of years. For a number of years, state bureaucracies in most of Western Europe have focused on the limited term nature conservation in regards to landscape management, and the role of farmers in this respect. So when the term conservation has been used, its meaning has usually referred only to the preservation of flora and fauna, or their habitats (Green 1996; Beedell & Rehman 2000; Wilson & Hart 2001). Legislation, registration and strategic research in Denmark concerning landscape management have for decades been directed primarily towards nature conservation; although nobody involved in the process will claim that particular situation to be an ideal one (Agger et al. 1986; Brandt 1994).