July 2, 2025. For those who missed the opportunity to attend our fifth inspirational lecture with Dr. Sjoerd Kluiving of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on May 7, 2025, a recording is now available, offering valuable insights into the TerraNova project and the broader challenges of the Anthropocene.
In his presentation, Dr. Kluiving focused on two main themes: the practical contributions of landscape management to a low-carbon society, and the theoretical search for an Anthropocene theory capable of addressing current and looming planetary crises. He began by outlining the core objectives of the TerraNova project, which seeks to reconstruct the deep history of Europe’s cultural landscapes and analyse how human-nature interactions have evolved through successive energy regimes—from hunter-gatherer to industrial and post-industrial societies. By re-examining the outcomes of these historical interactions, TerraNova aims to inform future energy transitions with a long-term perspective that integrates environmental and social considerations.
The project also aims to design landscape management strategies that provide scientific guidance on threats and opportunities for Europe’s natural and cultural values, define criteria for ecosystem restoration of abandoned agricultural areas, and generate future scenarios for landscape change using integrated models. These efforts are crucial for current planning initiatives, especially those targeting the transition to a low-carbon society. Dr. Kluiving then transitioned to discussing the Anthropocene—the current era in which human activity has surpassed natural forces in shaping the planet. He highlighted how this dominance has led to the overstepping of biophysical planetary boundaries, threatening land, water, and atmospheric systems, and exacerbating social and humanitarian crises. Drawing on international reports from organizations such as the IPCC, IPBES, UNESCO, ENECE, and the United Nations, he identified three critical transitions necessary to address these challenges: the energy transition, the transformation of current land-use practices, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the food system.
NB: Questions asked during the lecture were answered, but the questioners have been edited out.