4. Opportunities for landscapes and rural communities

In our view, reed is integrally connected to the big question of what kind of rural landscapes, rural communities and rural livelihoods we want there to be in the future. Reed is like a canary in a mine. It exists in our landscapes to tell us that the way we do things now is leading to problems. Excessive reed growth is a result of climate change, eutrophication and lack of grazing in coastal areas.

The real problem today is that too many of our rural landscapes and communities are far too fragile. This is because they are:
– dependent on production inputs outside their own landscape, such as energy and fertilisers,
– locked into an extractive production system that does not work in cooperation with nature but instead against it.

In recent years, we have seen sudden shocks such as pandemics, wars and macroeconomic disruptions cause big problems for fragile landscapes and communities. At the same time, long-term crises, such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity, are constantly weakening their chances of survival.

To increase landscape resilience and self-reliance, we need to be able to identify valuable resources that already exist in the landscape, but are currently underutilised and undervalued. Reed is one such underutilised resource of the local landscape. Our task is to find ways to best use the potential of these resources to preserve and refine the value of the landscape. In this way, we can reduce the need for external contributions to the landscape and minimize the impoverishment of the landscape's value.