Löf, Annette
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
A widespread governance response to land use conflict is to seek improved communication through the employment of dialogue-based instruments. In this paper, we interrogate the guiding presupposition that conflict can be planned away through a case study on the Reindeer Husbandry Plan (Renbruksplan), a tool used to address land use conflicts between industrial forestry and Indigenous Sámi reindeer herding. Drawing on critical policy analysis and environmental justice frameworks, we analyze the problematizations, silences, and effects emerging from the tool’s use in forestry planning and land use decisions. Our findings reveal that, operating in its current institutional and legal context, the tool offers limited improvements in procedural justice, exacerbates unequal distribution of burdens and benefits in terms of who gets to use forest resources, privileging a forestry-centered representation of the land use conflict. We therefore conclude that, in absence of institutional reform, the tool is likely to perpetuate conflicts and continue to reproduce the injustices embedded in Swedish forest and land use governance.
Keywords
critical policy analysis; environmental justice; forest governance; forestry; land use conflict; land use plans; participatory land use planning; reindeer herding; Reindeer Husbandry Plan; WPR
Published in
Arctic Review on Law and Politics
2025, volume: 16, pages: 31-57
Publisher: Cappelen Damm Akademisk
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Law
Political Science (Excluding Peace and Conflict Studies)
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.23865/arctic.v16.6298
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/142768