Tavoitteellinen kulttuurinen muutos on välttämätön
kestävän kehityksen saavuttamiseksi. Luontosuhde, Suomessa keskeisenä metsäsuhde,
on muutoksen mahdollistavaa aineetonta perintöä. Se koostuu ihmisissä elävistä ja
luontosuhteessa virtaavista tiedoista, taidoista, maailmankuvasta ja toiminnasta.
Tulevaisuusperinnöksi muodostettuna
se auttaa ihmisiä muuttamaan yhteisvoimin vaikutuksiaan luontoon.

Human-forest relationship as
culturally sustainable heritage futures

Societal and cultural
transformation towards a more sustainable human life, globally, is needed in
order to achieve ecological sustainability. In Finland, actions in relation to
forests are central in this context. I consider the human-forest relationship,
one form of human-nature relationship, as a basis for such transformation.
Human-forest relationship is on the one hand an element of everyday culture, on
the other hand it is an action within international and national cultural
policy, in form of intangible cultural heritage. In the context of this article
it is seen in relation to the policy actions of sustainable development. Until
now, there are not any indications of a global sustainability transformation
implemented by cultural policy instruments. When looking at culture as a
process or a stream, it is, however, possible to notice the transformative
power of culture, which can be both intentional and unintentional. Future is
present in all cultural and societal actions, even though we do not always
notice it. Intangible traditions as knowledge, skills, worldview and actions
streaming in the cultural human-nature relationship gives the possibility for change.
By turning some of such traditions into intangible cultural heritage, it is
possible to then co-create an intentional cultural policy instrument for
sustainable futures. When intangible cultural heritage is combined with intentional
and meaningful impacts to humans, culture and nature, it can be then defined as
heritage futures. Culturally sustainable heritage futures mean the protection
of the transformative power of culture, in the interactive stream of tangible
and intangible culture and nature, by assuring the possibility to participate
in the co-creation of the cultural transformation for each human being without
compromising the wellbeing of nature, human beings and sustainable futures. In
a world that is targeting a transformation towards ecological sustainability, people
understand the process of nature (here seen as semiosis), including culture as
a stream (anthroposemiosis), as a factor which limits human actions within
planetary boundaries.