Two hikers descend the path from Vettakollen, a prominent rise on the northern edge of the city between Holmenkollen and Sognsvann. Vettakollen is a short and steep hike, easily accessible by a metro stop of the same name.

The forests surrounding Oslo are incorporated into the lifestyle and outdoor recreation activities year-round.  Oslo Marka includes over 100 lakes and rivers for fishing and swimming,  more than 2,600 km (1,600 miles) of cross-country ski trails, innumerable hiking trails, and dozens of cabins open for overnighting or shorter respites during a trek. 

Marka

Surrounded by forest and fjord, Oslo is sometimes referred to as "the blue, the green and the city in-between". Marka, the forested hilly expanse encircling the city from west to east and opening to the Oslo Fjord, is not just a backdrop of the skyline but a defining characteristic and a valuable resource for the city.

 The immense natural areas are not "wilderness" in the strict sense since they are cultivated and regularly inhabited by people. Oslo's urban planning has preserved and developed the circumscribed nature, deliberately creating a development boundary and further integrating green corridors into these environs as crucial planning elements. Maintaining and protecting this remarkable nature is both a condition and an outcome of Oslo's history and philosophy of urban planning.

Consequently, Oslo's distinct urban character is profoundly influenced by its natural surroundings, and the Oslo-Marka comprises an integral part of urban life. In other words, in Oslo, much of urban culture is defined by outdoor-life rituals year-round and in contact with this vast nature preserve. 

Oslo’s crossroads in the forest

Arguably, because so many do experience it, they value it, and protect it.  The Marka is venerated.  Engagement results in education and interests support advocacy and maintains political will.  Consequently, city planning in Oslo safeguards nature and further promotes outdoor lifestyles for its citizens. Access to the expanse of green forests surrounding the city is promoted in many ways – from the policy of land use, neighbourhood zoning and planning, to targeted investments in mobility infrastructure. 

The outdoor life, an urban imperative in Oslo

 Friluftsliv is Norwegian for “outdoorlife” however the term has meaning and significance in excess of this translation.  Frilufts-culture, is a concept, first coined by the 19th century Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen evoking the enjoyment of the outdoors as a defining concept of Norwegian culture.[2] Access to Norwegian nature is considered an inalienable right, warranted on historic and national preconditions.[3]  Friluftsliv has been argued as a “self-sustaining” dimension of Norwegian culture through social rituals.  This protean cultural-value shapes the Marka around Oslo, it has given rise to how it is managed, preserved and provides the foundation of municipal policy that advances a broader “green agenda” today. 

Governance of urban nature

 Oslo’s comprehensive development plans expound the vision and goals regulating the city’s development. One of the main strategies for urban development centres on the preservation, expansion, and access to the  city’s natural landscapes.  Oslo’s municipal master plan highlights that the Marka is to be protected and strengthened. In effect, and sounding somewhat paradoxical to a binary dichotomy of city and wilderness, urban development is predicated on and guided by preservation of nature.  Oslo’s master plans dictate that development must not reduce access to the surrounding nature.  Moreover, new development must further develop blue-green infrastructures from the forest to the fjord.[4]

Prime Minister Gahr Støre’s speech pointed to the citizens rights in this planning process. 

“For us in the government, it is important to work to ensure that everyone has access to nature, to get close to it. And that natural areas are maintained close to where people live. There must be a really low threshold for engaging in outdoor activities. We must take responsibility for that together.”

 The access to nature throughout the city is conceived as a right, one that citizens must safeguard and maintain.  

Urban commons

 “Commons” refer to the shared resources accessible to members of a society.  In cities one often thinks of road and public squares.  However, Oslo's urban commons include the Marka and the parks and networks of green-corridors to the surrounding nature. Norway has a unique law defining their common spaces, securing a “freedom to roam”.  It is a right to ensure everyone can experience nature.  Allemannsretten, meaning “everyman’s right”  is considered central to Norway’s cultural heritage and has been enshrined in the Outdoor Recreation Act since 1957.  The Prime Minister pointed out that this right to experience nature should be as true in the cities as in the mountains. 

Health and well-being through urban nature

The benefit of the urban commons and this outdoor lifestyle is understood for its manifold benefits .  The Prime Minister pointed out that access to and amenities in these natural areas equates to investments in spatial planning for public health.  Previously, as Minister of Health, Gahr Støre had referred to the development of the nearby path around Sognsvann as a “public-health-road”.  More than a 3.2-kilometer (two-mile) footpath around the lake it is conceived as infrastructure promoting population health benefits for citizens enjoying the area.  The area is enjoyed year-round with separate trails for walking or running, than for skiing and cycling, all with access to swimming areas, fishing, and picnicking areas.

Crossroads of urban development and the environment

Our chance encounter in the forest, the community event at Sognsvann, and the Prime Minister’s speech all stand as testimony to Oslo’s robust friluftliv – culture.  Rhetorically, “a crossroad” is a crucial point, where a decision needs to be made.  In cities, too often decision are pitted in terms of development or the environment.  Oslo’s crossroads in the forest are literal and figurate; they have resulted in an integrated proposition of city development and green spaces. The Marka is a meeting place and an extension of the urban community. Cultural appreciation of nature has shaped public policies.  As the Prime Minister pointed out, “Anyone who likes to be in nature will also want to take care of it.” The extant nature surrounding Oslo is not merely a fortuitous condition.  Instead, the expansive wilderness is indebted to community values boldly avowed in the municipal vision, declaring that ‘Oslo is to be one of the world’s most environmentally friendly cities.[5]

 The wilderness and nature surrounding Oslo is best understood not in contrast to the urban development, but in relation to it.  The prevalence of urban outdoor lifestyles and identity are a cherished part of the cultural heritage and a central tenant of modern urban society.  The urbanism and relationship to nature have developed together.  At the intersecting crossroads of nature and urban development, is the outdoor community of Oslo.  The forest surrounding Oslo is, considered in terms of an urban common, with a strategy for protecting and managing it.  In Oslo, outdoor life is something available to everyone, by design. 

[1] Jonas Gahr  Støre, "Åpning av Friluftslivets uke 2022 (Opening of Friluftslivets week 2022)," news release, September 4th, 2022.

[2] Børge Dahle, "Norwegian "friluftsliv" – "Environmental Education" as a lifelong communal process" (Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Seventh World Wilderness Congress symposium, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, November 28, 2001 2003).247.  For a Norwegian historical overview of sports culture see: Rune Slagstad, (Sporten): en idéhistorisk studie (Oslo: Pax, 2010).  A central theme of the book is to trace how once rarefied practices, such as mountain travel, came to define an aspect of mass-culture.

[3] Norway’s historic law of allemannsrett (all man’s right) refers to the right of access to and passage through uncultivated land in the countryside, regardless of who owns it.  The law has both practical and ideological consequences, enabling an unbounded experience of Norway’s nature.  Historically, allemannsrett is considered a right of Norwegians that can both be traced back to the Viking period and affirmed in the modern age (e.g., through the Outdoor Recreation Act). The Act of 28 June 1957 No.16 relating to Outdoor Recreation states: “The purpose of this Act is to protect the natural basis for outdoor recreation and to safeguard the public right of access to and passage through the countryside and the right to spend time there, etc., so that opportunities for outdoor recreation as a leisure activity that is healthy, environmentally sound and gives a sense of well-being are maintained and promoted.”  Norge, Om lov om friluftslivet av 28. juni 1957 (Oslo: Miljøverndepartementet, 1997).

[4] Oslo kommune, Grøntplan for Oslo : kommunedelplan for blågrønne strukturen i Oslos i byggesonen,  (Oslo 2008). 

[5] «Oslo skal være en av verdens mest miljøvennlige byer.»  Kommune, Short Kommuneplan 2008 - Oslo mot 2025.

[*] Norsk Friluftsliv (The Norwegian Association for Outdoor Organisations) is a joint organization for 18 outdoor organisations promoting nature-friendly outdoor lifestyle  and allemannseretten, with over 950,000 members (e.g., Den Norske Turistforening, Norges Turmasjforbund, Norges Jeger- og Fiskerforbund, Norges KFUK-KFUM-speidere, Norges Klatreforbund, Norsk Orientering, Norges Padleforbund, Norges Røde Kors, Norges speiderforbund, 4H Norge, Skiforeningen og Syklistenes Landsforening, Kristen idrettskontakt, Norsk Kennel Klub, Norges Seilforbund, Forbundet KYSTEN, Det norske Skogselskap og Norges sopp- og nyttevekstforbund).