Navigating overgrazing and cultural values through narratives and participatory mapping: a socio-cultural analysis of sheep grazing in the Faroe Islands

Long-term livestock grazing has shaped landscapes, biodiversity, societies, cultures, and economies in the North Atlantic over time. However, overgrazing become a major environmental sustainability challenge for this region, covering Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Scotland. The objective of study was to elicit narratives spatial patterns local people’s management preferences sheep Islands through socio-cultural lens. We collected data via Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) survey with an open question about hopes concerns mapping exercise expressing management. Four distinct emerged from qualitative analysis responses (n = 184): (1) Sustainable management, (2) Nature without sheep, (3) Sheep as part Faroese culture, (4) nuisance. Visual inspection narrative-specific maps locations where either no or fewer were preferred indicated that is not simply ’sheep vs. sheep’ issue but embedded more nuanced consideration place landscape society. For example, some residents sheep-farming commercial enterprise social activity source food. Our combined methodological approach using can help researchers other fields identify interplay between place-specific areas concern values, enabling targeted land-use policies plans.