Cultural heritage contributes to all the dimensions of sustainable development. Society must be economical with existing cultural values during change, and work towards culture-historical diversity when our cultural environment is renewed.

For more than ten years the Swedish National Heritage Board has worked to further develop the protection and use of the cultural environment. Cultural heritage is seen increasingly as a resource in regional and local development processes in society. The Swedish National Heritage Board's presence in other societal processes is in increasingly great demand.

Diversity and inclusiveness

For several years, the Swedish National Heritage Board has worked to develop diversity and inclusiveness so that new groups can partake of cultural heritage and add new perspectives. One example of this is the Board's current development project, "Values and selection", in which we want to develop methods to evaluate and select cultural environments that are interesting for all members of society.

Foto: Thomas Persson

Environmental and cultural issues cannot be separated

Environmental issues and cultural environment issues cannot be separated, especially not today where valuable buildings are being destroyed by air pollution and objects in the ground are decomposing because the ground has become acidified.

Providing sector research funds, the Swedish National Heritage Board is supporting a research project that develops methods for energy-saving solutions in churches and other culture-historical buildings: "Careful and energy-efficient heating of churches". The project is jointly funded with the Swedish Energy Agency.

Another example is our participation in a Nordic cooperation project that will study the effects of climate change on cultural relics and cultural environments. Sustainable development is also central to Sweden's work on the universal heritage, which also focuses on climate issues. For the universal heritage it is also important to work towards an integrated view of nature and culture.