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This article uses a mixed-methods design to study flight-intensive practices in Norway. It explores how practices changed as a consequence of the travel restrictions implemented to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications for people's well-being. Norway is one of the European countries where people take the most flights per capita and the expectation is for air traffic to increase by approximately 4% annually from pre-pandemic levels. Notwithstanding the industry's goal of becoming fossil-free by 2050, the rapid reduction of emissions to keep global warming at 1.5°C below pre-industrial levels is unlikely to happen without restrictions in air travel. The article draws on social practice and wellbeing perspectives to investigate the possibility of flying less in post-pandemic times. Using survey data and regression analysis, the study analyzes the infrastructures, norms, values, resources, and competencies associated with reductions in pre-pandemic air travel. Engaging in walking and cycling and taking collective transport for short-distance travel were found to correlate with flying less for long distances. In-depth interviews with domestic travelers suggest that flying less for work might be a synergic satisfier as it contributes to more than one human need without hampering any others. This has implications for the well-being of people who engage in flight-intensive practices for work as it will likely be enhanced if work-related travel is significantly reduced when the COVID-19 pandemic is over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how land-use management practices incorporate nature conservation concerns in four Norwegian rural municipalities. It focuses on nature conservation, which is vital both to maintain nature's ability to store carbon and to preserve ecosystems, as key aspects of the environmental dimension of sustainable development. The paper analyses the perceptions of local, regional and state stakeholders relating to four rural municipalities following diverging land-use trajectories. We find land policy in all four cases to be highly entangled with strategies to achieve growth in terms of income, job creation and population. When nature conservation was not in line with wider economic or social considerations, it was less integrated into land-policy practices. In three of the municipalities, the construction of residential units, holiday-homes or renewable energy parks was prioritized over the preservation of nature areas or cultural landscapes. One case presented a contrasting trajectory, as it involved a clear alignment between nature conservation and economic growth. Here, conservation was considered a key strategy to both sustain the traditional fishery industry and to accommodate the growing tourism. However, while this municipality's restrictive land use was based on a nature conservation understanding, it was also connected to the greenhouse-gas emissions, resource exhaustion and waste generation traditionally associated with international tourism. The study concludes by highlighting the importance of rural municipalities being equipped with sufficient resources if they are to prioritize environmental concerns over the economic and social dimensions of sustainability in their land-use management practices. • Sustainable land-use management in rural settings is understudied. • Nature conservation is vital to store carbon and to preserve ecosystems. • Nature conservation was integrated in land policy when in line with growth agendas. • Sustainability and non-sustainability may be differently linked at different scales. • Sustainable land use involves a mutual dependency across the levels of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]