Abstract
Over the centuries mires have been considered to be mostly useless, even dangerous places. Adopting a landscape semiotic perspective the article delineates the current common perceptions of Estonian mires based upon 767 questionnaires. Today the mire is commonly perceived as undisturbed wilderness offering possibilities for various recreational as well as traditional activities. The image of mires in popular consciousness is predominantly based on touristic experience of protected areas. The history of the most widespread practices in the mires over the 20th century reveals three general paradigmatic frames of reference: traditional where mire appears to be liminal; industrial where it is encultured; and ecological where mire is aestheticized. In its orientation towards aesthetic and emotional values the common perspective diverges from the landscape ecological definition. Tourism to non-protected, partly meliorated mires should be encouraged to give a more realistic perspective of the mires to non-professionals.
Highlights
During the last half-century, mires, together with other wetlands, have gained considerable attention as very important providers of various ecosystem services such as greenhouse gas regulation, water supply and regime management, nutrient buffering during the last decades (Costanza et al 1997; De Groot et al 2006)
We take practical engagement with the mires to be the basis for their meaningfulness to people and follow how the socio-economic changes in the practical relationship have affected the physical form of Estonian mires
The socio-cultural aspects of their creation have not been critically analyzed until quite recently. These analyses demonstrate that cultural perceptions about what can pass as genuine nature appear to be as important as ecological reasons in the creation of protected areas
Summary
During the last half-century, mires, together with other wetlands, have gained considerable attention as very important providers of various ecosystem services such as greenhouse gas regulation, water supply and regime management, nutrient buffering during the last decades (Costanza et al 1997; De Groot et al 2006). As Giblett (1996) points out, the cultural meaning and importance of the mires have been rather marginal and negative for centuries as those areas are generally poorly suited for human settlements. He tries to deconstruct the negative meaning about the wetlands using examples from the whole world. The process and background of draining mires in Russia due to land shortages have been described by French (1964). Among other things he highlights the detrimental influence of mires on the health of people.
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