This interdisciplinary project addresses challenges for sustainable ecosystem planning and governance linked to expansive, multifunctional peri-urban landscapes from an integrated social-ecological perspective. The peri-urban landscape as a transition zone between urban and rural areas is characterized by a diversified and fragmented land-use with strong relations to functions belonging to an urbanized society with urban mobile life-styles.

A specific trend is the rapid increase of sport horses in Europe and North America, but now primarily as providers of cultural ecosystem services. Horse keeping is increasingly important for maintaining a cultural agricultural landscape. However, the large number of horses affect ecosystem functions and biodiversity in different ways that needs more attention in planning and management.

The overall aim of this project is to increase the knowledge for sustainable ecosystem management of the transition from a traditional agricultural landscape to horse keeping. The project aims to develop innovative forms for participation and stakeholder collaboration in planning where ecosystem services can be a useful tool to visualize and identify different synergies and trade-offs to support decision-making. The project focuses on horse keeping in three selected peri-urban municipalities in the Stockholm region and combines field work, GIS-mapping of land use practices, and bird diversity together with interviews and stakeholder dialogue workshops.