All Man's Rights

Allemansrätten. There's a law in New Zealand that says it's perfectly legal to urinate against the rear wheel of your horse drawn wagon in the middle of town, if you are travelling to the gold fields. Now I'm not sure why this was felt worth of legal status, and there hasn't been a gold rush in NZ for about 150 years. But the law's there, a handy thing to know. Allemansrätten is equally odd it stature. To me, anyway. The literal English translation is "All Man's Rights". Essentially it says that anyone has the right to go pretty much anywhere in Sweden, regardless of land ownership. It's not a true law, but you can't be prosecuted for exercising the right. Unless you're an idiot. As a good socialist state, it allowed for the right of people to gather firewood and food. If they had no other means. And it's kind of hung around since then. It also recognises the love ( aka obsession ) that native Swedes have for being out in nature. So how does it work in practice ? Well, basically you have the right to go for a walk in the countryside, where ever your fancy takes you. Which is why you don't see a lot of fences out in the country. A Swedish landowner cannot build a fence that resricts access through their land. Obviously the exception is land that is clearly being farmed. You can't do anything that might damage the land, or disturb in anyway the normal activity on that land. So you can't go stomping through a field of wheat. You are allowed to gather firewood, and pick flowers or pluck berries. You can light a cooking fire, so long as you take care of it. You can also stop for one night and camp, if you wish. In all cases you usually need not seek out the owner of the land and ask permission. Although I personally think it's polite and reasonable to at least tell them that you are there. You must also respect the privacy of the landowner, by staying away from where they live or places that are obvious they use for themselves. Other exceptions are no brainers. It's foot traffic only, so leave your dirtbike at home. Nobody likes those. You're not supposed to hunt or to take eggs from nests. You can swim, but not fish. Without a permit. Now, it's not that I don't like nature, don't get me wrong there. I just don't have the same Call of the Wild obsession level that most native Swedes appear to have. It will come. But today I don't see the big deal in having the right to go where you want. In NZ I managed to wander around outside quite happily by keeping to the publically owned land. That was enough for me. What I do like about this is that everyone has a sense of ownership of the land. It's nothing in law, just something they have all grown up with. And as such, they tend to look after the land. If you see a candy wrapper discarded in the countryside, you can pretty much guarantee that it wasn't a Swede who left it there. In that respect, peer pressure is changing some of my "less desireable" habits. Like picking up after myself. There's a feel good factor in walking through a countryside unblighted by waste and rubbish. On the downside I've seen a lot of people, and sadly I'm talking about out of towners here, going into the forests to pluck berries in such quantities that can only be for commercial purposes. And that's just plain wrong. I wonder when the day will come when this forces a restriction on the rights. I understand there is now legislation in place preventing foreign commercial tour operators from operating large scale camping tours, using Allemansrätten to avoid camping charges. What the hell is wrong with you people ? Stay at home and abuse your own system. You know who you are. One thing 'm not sure about is the responsibility of the landowner, should there be any accident or injury to someone passing over the land. In New Zealand, the landowner is always responsible for anything that happens on the land, regardless of how dumb the other person might have been. So access was usually denied. I don't know how it works here, but it would seem a bit unfair to the landowner, if they have little control over who goes where. I might have to dig into that a little further. So it's a quirky little right, in a land of quirky people and quirky things. Oddly enough it seems to work. Probably because of the genetic personality traits of the people. They can be such plonkers at times, but this part I like.