Whose knowledge is it anyway? Apprehensions around sharing knowledge of natural resources in the northern periphers

Abstract

The question of sharing knowledge, particularly traditional or local knowledge, is a sensitive issue. This relates to the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, such as Sami and Inuit that is protected by international conventions, as well as that of local knowledge of good berry-picking or fishing sites which equally is not easily shared with outsiders. This chapter describes the concerns that were raised by the indigenous Sami people in Finland in relation to a public participatory GIS mapping inquiry in their domicile region along with the need to have free and prior informed consent (FPIC). This latter element of FPIC, based on the international convents of the indigenous peoples’ rights, became significant at a very early stage in the research. These concerns were compared to differently designed approaches in the indigenous contexts of Sweden and Greenland. The results indicate that it is extremely important to create an atmosphere of trust when doing research in the indigenous peoples’ regions, although dependence on the societal situation might be challenging.

Published in

Title: Sharing knowledge for land use management : Decision-making and expertise in Europe’s northern periphery
ISBN: 9781789901887, eISBN: 9781789901894Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

SLU Authors

• Lidestav, Gun

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Human Geography
Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789901894.00010

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/111057