ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the issue of temporality in semi-natural grassland management and focuses on the implications of a heightened recognition of time for nature conservation strategies. The distinctness of semi-natural grasslands could be related both to the historical roots of Swedish nature conservation originating from romantic ideas about nature at the end of the nineteenth century and to the fact that biodiversity richness in agricultural landscapes has only been taken into account relatively recently. The chapter presents a processual landscape perspective, serving as a theoretical framework. It introduces the study area Ostra Vatterbranterna, and elaborates a number of time-related issues concerning landscape management strategies and practices in the area. In the national environmental quality objectives, one of the specifications concerning agricultural landscapes states, 'Biological and cultural heritage values of the agricultural landscape that have emerged through long-term, traditional management are preserved or improved'.
