The record of human entry into the planetary system begins much earlier than the Industrial Revolution or the end of World War II. Below ground, where archaeologists focus their attention, this longer history is about the intimate details of the human affair with Earth. For millennia people have altered their surroundings by using fire, propagating certain species of plants and animals, building dams that change the course of rivers, clearing land, and generally making themselves at home—and in the process altering the course of human evolution itself.
Read more »Until recently much of the research on global land-use change was focused on ‘wild’ lands and the shifting agricultural frontier, reporting trends such as deforestation, desertification, disappearance of wetlands, or burning of peatland. In the HERCULES project we acknowledge that we live in a ‘post-wild’ world today. Therefore, we need to pay equal – or if not more – attention to sustaining the values of the many landscapes of the world that have been shaped by human agency over centuries. In a recent special feature of the Ecology & Society journal, we draw attention to the fate of cultural landscapes, seeking to engage with generic processes of change by adopting and adapting an ecosystem services approach that is sensitive to local context.
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