My recent topics & projects metla.fi/pp/625/index-en.htm

3. My recent topics & projects www.metla.fi/pp/625/index-en.htm • The effects of reindeer grazing and conservation in Malla nature reserve www.metla.fi/hanke/3312/index-en.htm • Criteria for social sustainability at northern tourist destinations www.arcticcentre.org/landscapelab • Sustainable multiple use of forests in northern Laplandwww.metla.fi/hanke/3400/index-en.htm • PhD study, today's topic: Cultural Factors of Nature-use in Lapland

4. Study objectives • trace cultural meanings that nature and nature-use are loaded among local people in Finnish Lapland • trace general needs and interests concerning local nature-use • trace tools and practises for culturally sound and successful nature conservation • study conditions for integration of different livelihoods and land-use patterns

5. Motives • many environmental conflicts in recent decades have shown that there is a remarkable demand for land-use management that recognizes especially social and cultural sustainability • due to rapid economical and cultural change there is also a social demand for integration of new and traditional livelihoods

6. Material & methods • personal interviews; target group local people, 88 persons were picked up using purposive & snowball sampling • qualitative text analyses • survey; 1000 persons from stratified random sampling; population: local people aged 18-70, 500 Saami and 500 non-Saami; response rate 38.1% • statistical analyses and qualitative text analyses • appealed writings from open writing contest targeted to local adults and youngsters; 60 writings • qualitative text analyses

7. Theoretical background • is anchored on cognitive anthropology that studies relation between human society and human thought • cognitive anthropology studies how people in social groups conceive and understand reality of physical (like forests) and abstract (like sustainable forestry) entities • the study tracks shared cultural meanings that these entities are loaded

8. Theoretical background continued • shared meanings are organised and represented as cultural models that steer human behaviour together with biological base (genes) and physical environment • cultural models are building bricks for understanding the reality and cosmos, and how to operate there • concept meme comes fairly close to cultural model • by studying cultural models of nature-use we can track needs, hopes, beliefs and values concerning sustainable use of nature Dawkins 1996; D´Andrade 1995; Shore 1996; Strauss & Quinn 1997; Blackmore 1999

9. Study area – Facts and figures • Study area consists of three municipalities: Enontekiö, Inari and Utsjoki

10. Study area

11. Facts and figures • Study area consists of three municipalities: Enontekiö, Inari and Utsjoki

12. Facts and figures • 91.0 % of land is state owned • 65.5 % of land and waters are under some level nature conservation

13. Nature conservation areas

14. Facts and figures • 91.0 % of land is state-owned • 65.5 % of land and waters are under some level nature conservation • 2/3 of timber wood (115 00 m3) comes from state forests of Inari • hunting is free for local people in their home municipality • tourism is major business nowadays, reindeer herding, public services and forestry (in Inari) are important employers too

16. Who should have power of decision on nature-use issues? – given increase and decrease counts at scale 0 to 100; means, N=321-356

17. Who should have power of decision on nature-use issues? Survey in Inari 2005 Hallikainen et al. 2006. Hallikainen et al. 2006. Inarilaisten käsityksiä metsätaloudesta ja muusta luonnonkäytöstä

18. Important goals for state-owned forests– divide count 100 between different goals; means, N=331-348

19. Importance of activities on state forests– evaluate from 0 to 10; means, N=331-348

20. Significant differences between groups concerning nature-use

21. Nature conservation rate is high and conservationists disliked… • conservation rate 66 % in study area is high while Finland’s total protection rate is 10 % (mainly bogs and non-woodlands) • differences between municipalities are strong; woodlands in Inari are less protected and there has been ongoing forestry conflicts since 1980s • nature conservation and especially conservationists carry a negative label in local people’s minds at study area

22. But: • people are happy with existing land-use decisions, they don’t want to reverse them • paradox: when asked, people dislike conservation but are satisfied with status quo • reason: present land-use decisions support traditional activities and livelihoods like subsistence use and reindeer herding, and they restrict non-local use

23. We want to rule! • there is large demand for increment of local decision-making • at the background lies generations old antagonism between north and south, periphery and centre • polarisation between north/south or local/non-local is a very strong cultural model that steers the opinions what is acceptable, right or reliable • it also produces rhetoric and jargon that is sometimes a barrier against fruitful discussion and collaborative management

24. But who are we, locals? • it is not clear who is considered as “local” • Saami as indigenous people are locals (if living in the area) but also non-Saami families with centuries old occupation history feel like local and are afraid to be marginalised and considered as general Finns • locals with one generation occupation history feels also themselves as local • government considers local as anybody who is registered in the municipality and therefore he/she has equal extended local rights to natural resources

25. Timescapes of change • structural and cultural changes after 1950s have been remarkable rapid in the arctic • the time shift that took hundreds of centuries in mid-Europe occurred within one generation in the arctic • in my study area, northern Lapland, traditional livelihoods and subsistence use are not major source of living anymore

26. Timescapes of change continued… • although, the mental change is always slower than technical and economical change of culture • thus people appreciate traditional nature-use patterns even though modern ones like tourism are a much better business and source of living; modern activities are not considered ”real use” in that sense • people seem to live some kind of double life somewhere between a forever lost past and the present day

27. Timescapes of change continued… • that tends to cause minor or major troubles for socio-cultural adaptation • it is no wonder if elderly people have problems with synchronising their lifestyle and worldview to present modernity • the hybrid timescape local people live by in northern Lapland sets also a challenge for sustainable land-use management that has to operate with needs of past and future

28. Tips for management people, conservationists and authority • Be moderate when you import. People in northern Lapland are very sensitive - rational or not - to ideas or ideologies that have a mental label “imported from south” (but modern technology goes anytime). • Do not stress the importance of culturally distant biological entities (like insects and microbes), the message is easily misunderstood like: “we don’t care for local peoples’ needs”. Stress the support (if it exists) that operation gives to local culture.

29. Tips for management people, conservationists and authority continued… • seek and use common “language” for mutual understanding • avoid behaviour that could be interpreted – right or wrong – arrogant • be honest • good sense of humour helps!