Development plan for Gallejaur culture- and nature reserve

Gallejaur has been a culture and nature reserve since 2008 and is managed by the County Administrative Board of Norrbotten County. The cultural reserve is a village environment from around 1800 that has been continuously developed in a small-scale way and the nature reserve comprises part of the forest that belongs to the farms in Gallejaur. In addition to the landscape with buildings and land use, there are many different cultural-historical objects preserved in the cultural reserve.

In Gallejaur village, there is a visitor activity and an organization with expertise on cultural heritage and on the restoration of buildings and the care and use of land. The number of visitors is stable with about 4000 - 5000 visitors per year and most visits take place in summer.

The County Administrative Board of Norrbotten County, together with the Sisters Karlsson Foundation in Gallejaur, Gallijar-Järvlia Cultural Rural Association and Arvidsjaur Municipality, has formed a joint administrative council. Norrbotten's Museum is also part of the Supervisory Board, whose activities, among other things, aim to intensify work on development issues of the area around the village.

In the work of managing the cultural reserve, the client has seen several issues that cannot be resolved on their own. These include the restaurant business and the development of knowledge transfer, visitor activities and accessibility for Gallejaur.

Together with KMV Forum, Living Cities was commissioned to develop a joint development plan with proposals for concrete measures for the Gallejaur culture and nature reserve to work from. The development plan shall be linked to goals and regulations for the culture and nature reserves as well as the Supervisory Board's target areas and vision. The proposed measures shall be formulated and information and responsibility for achieving the goals of long-term development is identified.

​After an initial analysis of the site and its conditions, local actors were invited to a dialogue workshop to jointly discuss goals and measures to develop Gallejaur. The results from the workshop are presented in a development plan with concrete courses of action for the development of local natural and cultural values.

Name of client: Norrbotten County Administrative Board
Year(s): 2021-2022
Country: Gallejaur, Sweden