Sammanfattning

In Sweden, fire management is driven by nature conservation objectives through both regeneration burning, used as a soil preparation method in forestry, and conservation burning in protected forests, aiming to reintroduce fire as an ecological process necessary for the preservation of biodiversity. The burning strategy affects Indigenous Sami reindeer herders who use commercial and protected forestlands as pastures for their reindeer. Fire can have ambivalent effects on reindeer pasture depending on where it occurs. Yet, Sami herders are currently not included in the planning process of burning but for a consultation by forest owners occurring late in the process. In this article, we interpret fire management as a system of fire domestication, understood as continuous interactions between humans and fire. To describe the modalities of contemporary fire domestication, our study draws on semi-structured interviews carried out with Sami reindeer herders, forestry planners, conservation managers, and burning practitioners in different localities of the northernmost counties of Vasterbotten and Norrbotten. We show how the domestication of fire involves a dual negotiation process: a negotiation with fire during the burning process, and a negotiation about fire between Sami herders and forest managers. Burning practitioners conceive fire as an agent rather than a tool, able to produce unique effects in forests and increase their naturalness, which they must steer in order to reach desired ecological results. Through the negotiation of the use of fire, fire domestication stimulates new interactions between Sami herders and forest managers, and constitutes a possible common ground from which new forms of collaboration could emerge. Our study reaffirms the hybrid nature of fire, both natural and cultural, resulting from negotiations with and between the human actors of the domestication system.

Nyckelord

fire domestication; boreal Sweden; Sami reindeer herding; forest management

Publicerad i

Journal of Ethnobiology
2021, Volym: 41, nummer: 4, sidor: 499-516
Utgivare: SOC ETHNOBIOLOGY

SLU författare

• Cogos, Sarah

  • Institutionen för skogens ekologi och skötsel, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    
  • Université Paris-Saclay

• Östlund, Lars

  • Institutionen för skogens ekologi och skötsel, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen

SDG15 Skydda, återställa och främja ett hållbart nyttjande av landbaserade ekosystem, hållbart bruka skogar, bekämpa ökenspridning, hejda och vrida tillbaka markförstöringen samt hejda förlusten av biologisk mångfald
SDG10 Minska ojämlikheten inom och mellan länder
SDG16 Främja fredliga och inkluderande samhällen för hållbar utveckling, tillhandahålla tillgång till rättvisa för alla samt bygga upp effektiva, och inkluderande institutioner med ansvarsutkrävande på alla nivåer


UKÄ forskningsämne

Skogsvetenskap
Miljö- och naturvårdsvetenskap


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-41.4.499

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/115716