Sabaheta Ramcilovic‐suominen
Biographic Data
| ID | 3460502 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sabaheta Ramcilovic‐suominen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sabaheta |
| FAMILY NAME | Ramcilovic‐suominen |
| SIGNATURE | SUOMINEN S R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Natural Resources Institute Finland |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3209-545X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 131 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 26 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Ecological care work in bamboo value chains
Over the last 20 years, bamboo has been promoted and marketed as an innovative and eco-friendly material, often evoking a sense of responsibility and care for nature. This article broadens understandings of care in forest-human relations, by examining the ecological care work done by peasants and emerging local civil society organizations in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR). Drawing on feminist political ecology and qualitative research…
How can relational, decolonial and feminist approaches inform the EU bioeconomy
In this commentary we argue that, to transform the bioeconomy sectors towards ecologically less harmful and socially fairer outcomes, the bioeconomy policy project must be questioned, re-politicised and fundamentally reframed and reinvented. We firstly identify some of the main root causes for continuity of extractivism and injustices in the bioeconomy policy and, more broadly, in the green transition (“Root causes of today’s socioecological cris…
Ghana’s landscape approach to Redd
Equity in unilateral value chain policies
Transformation or more of the same? The EU’s deforestation-free products regulation through a radical transformation lens
The European Union (EU) is a major consumer of forest-risks commodities and therefore a key contributor to imported deforestation. In 2023, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) entered into force, which aims to counter the imported deforestation resulting from EU consumption of cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy, wood and derived products. With this regulation, the EU is seemingly recognising its position as one of th…
Democracy through technocracy? Reinventing civil society as a state-monitored and unpaid service provider in the EU FLEGT VPA in Laos
This paper analyses the European Union’s (EU’s) democratising agenda within the frame of the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) in Laos. In particular, it focuses on the requirement for the participation of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the VPA and the Lao state actors’ responses to this requirement. I frame the VPA’s democratising agenda and its conditionality of civil society …
Tackling Conflicts, Supporting Livelihoods
While most of the literature on park management and nature conservation has focused on the negative implications for local people's livelihoods, fewer studies have empirically analysed local people's strategies in responding to these policies and renegotiating their position to continue their traditional livelihoods using their traditional knowledge and legal systems. This study contributes to the current literature on nature conservation by focu…
From hegemony-reinforcing to hegemony-transcending transformations
In the face of ever escalating global socioecological crises, the necessity of radical systemic transformations has gained increasing political and academic traction over the last decade, among others in the context of ‘green’ and bio-based economies. We draw on the works of political philosophers Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Judith Butler to develop a typology of transformational dynamics. In this typology, the word transformation implies …
Is the EU shirking responsibility for its deforestation footprint in tropical countries? Power, material, and epistemic inequalities in the EU’s global environmental governance
This paper critically examines the European Union's (EU) role in tropical deforestation and the bloc's actions to mitigate it. We focus on two EU policy communications aimed at the challenge: stepping up EU action to protect and restore the world's forests and the EU updated bioeconomy strategy. In addition, we refer to the European Green Deal, which articulates the bloc's overarching vision for sustainability and transformations. We find that by…
The more things change, the more they stay the same
This editorial lays out the core themes of the special feature and provides an overview of the contributions. It introduces the main argument, namely that the promises of far-reaching change made by recent bioeconomy policies are in fact strategically directed at avoiding transformative change to existing societal arrangements. Bioeconomy discourse showcases technological solutions purported to solve sustainability ‘problems’ while sustaining eco…
Indigenous Knowledge in the Amazon's Bioeconomy
Neoliberal pathways to the bioeconomy
Global capitalism has changed the Earth system to the extent that the current epoch is called the Anthropocene. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), land use change has played a crucial role in this profound functional shift in the Earth system. The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and its follow-up processes have insisted the same regarding the persisting decline in biodiversity. To shed light on the institutional a…
What drives forest rule compliance behaviour in the Congo Basin? A study of local communities in Cameroon
From pro-growth and planetary limits to degrowth and decoloniality
In 2012, the European Commission (EC) introduced the new bio-based economy or bioeconomy policy project, since adopted by about 50 countries. Alongside politicians, various research and other interest groups have promoted the bioeconomy as inevitable, apolitical, and a triple-win strategy for nature, people, and the economy. Recently, bioeconomy is also actively promoted and framed as transformative. Yet what is transformative or even new in the …
Envisioning just transformations in and beyond the EU bioeconomy
The European Union (EU) is adhering to decarbonization of its economy to tackle what is narrowly framed as 'environmental issues' of our socioecological and civilizational crises-including, but not limited to, climate change and biodiversity loss. A shift to bio-based economy (bioeconomy) is an important component of this effort. This paper applies theoretical ideas from decolonial environmental justice and degrowth, placed in the wider context o…
Power imbalances, social inequalities and gender roles as barriers to true participation in national park management
Forest resource management has undergone profound changes in the last decades, including a tendency to apply participatory approach that seeks to involve local communities. However, the success of the participatory approach tends to remain dependent on the historical and societal context in question. To understand how the participation of forest communities has been changing as a result of the enforcement or non-enforcement of forest management p…
Environmental justice and Redd+ safeguards in Laos
Balancing agendas for climate mitigation and environmental justice continues to be one of the key challenges in climate change governance mechanisms, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+). In this paper we apply the three-dimensional environmental justice framework as a lens to examine the REDD+ process in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) and the REDD+ social safeguards. We focus particularly on challeng…
Power relations in community resilience and politics of shifting cultivation in Laos
This article is a contribution to a critical resilience literature that emphasizes the lack of recognition and consideration of social and power relations, the complexity of local cultural heterogeneity and aspects of justice in current resilience approaches. We base our contribution on an empirical study related to policy and project interventions implemented by governmental agencies and international development partners in Laos. The studied in…
Redd+ policy translation and storylines in Laos
This article examines the (re)production of discourses and storylines in the process of policy translation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in Laos. Applying the concepts of policy discourses and policy translation, we first identify the prominent storylines at the various governance levels in Laos. Second, we compare and contrast these storylines with the global REDD+ discourses. Further, we discuss how dif…
Mapping policy actor networks and their interests in the FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement in Lao PDR
The most powerful actors in the VPA policy network are the central government and the international development partners. • Domestic CSOs and village authorities are the least politically powerful actors in the VPA policy network in Lao PDR. • Strong policy preferences are noted for all aspects of timber legality, transparency and accountability. • Weaker policy preferences are noted for forest communities’ rights and livelihoods, and for civil s…
Redd+ as a tool for state territorialization
This article analyzes the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) policy process, through the lens of state territorialization in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos). It explores the motivations, mechanisms and strategies that drive REDD+ policy design and its implementation in the country. The provinces selected for REDD+ activities within the Emission Reduction (ER) Program, as well as the various REDD+ …
Sustainable development – A ‘selling point’ of the emerging EU bioeconomy policy framework?
Flegt
There has been recent debate around the role of ‘fads’ in global conservation measures, and the lessons they hold for achieving desired conservation and development outcomes. Fads are characterized by initially widespread enthusiasm and major mobilization of resources followed by abandonment in favor of the next fad. Debate centers less on whether such fads exist, but rather on whether they represent opportunities for incremental policy learning,…
Synergies among social safeguards in FLEGT and Redd + in Cameroon
The impacts of deterrence, social norms and legitimacy on forest rule compliance in Ghana
From pro-growth and planetary limits to degrowth and decoloniality
In 2012, the European Commission (EC) introduced the new bio-based economy or bioeconomy policy project, since adopted by about 50 countries. Alongside politicians, various research and other interest groups have promoted the bioeconomy as inevitable, apolitical, and a triple-win strategy for nature, people, and the economy. Recently, bioeconomy is also actively promoted and framed as transformative. Yet what is transformative or even new in the …
Envisioning just transformations in and beyond the EU bioeconomy
The European Union (EU) is adhering to decarbonization of its economy to tackle what is narrowly framed as 'environmental issues' of our socioecological and civilizational crises-including, but not limited to, climate change and biodiversity loss. A shift to bio-based economy (bioeconomy) is an important component of this effort. This paper applies theoretical ideas from decolonial environmental justice and degrowth, placed in the wider context o…
Why some forest rules are obeyed and others violated by farmers in Ghana
From hegemony-reinforcing to hegemony-transcending transformations
In the face of ever escalating global socioecological crises, the necessity of radical systemic transformations has gained increasing political and academic traction over the last decade, among others in the context of ‘green’ and bio-based economies. We draw on the works of political philosophers Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Judith Butler to develop a typology of transformational dynamics. In this typology, the word transformation implies …
Power relations in community resilience and politics of shifting cultivation in Laos
This article is a contribution to a critical resilience literature that emphasizes the lack of recognition and consideration of social and power relations, the complexity of local cultural heterogeneity and aspects of justice in current resilience approaches. We base our contribution on an empirical study related to policy and project interventions implemented by governmental agencies and international development partners in Laos. The studied in…
Mapping policy actor networks and their interests in the FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement in Lao PDR
The most powerful actors in the VPA policy network are the central government and the international development partners. • Domestic CSOs and village authorities are the least politically powerful actors in the VPA policy network in Lao PDR. • Strong policy preferences are noted for all aspects of timber legality, transparency and accountability. • Weaker policy preferences are noted for forest communities’ rights and livelihoods, and for civil s…
Equity in unilateral value chain policies
The more things change, the more they stay the same
This editorial lays out the core themes of the special feature and provides an overview of the contributions. It introduces the main argument, namely that the promises of far-reaching change made by recent bioeconomy policies are in fact strategically directed at avoiding transformative change to existing societal arrangements. Bioeconomy discourse showcases technological solutions purported to solve sustainability ‘problems’ while sustaining eco…
Synergies among social safeguards in FLEGT and Redd + in Cameroon
Transformation or more of the same? The EU’s deforestation-free products regulation through a radical transformation lens
The European Union (EU) is a major consumer of forest-risks commodities and therefore a key contributor to imported deforestation. In 2023, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) entered into force, which aims to counter the imported deforestation resulting from EU consumption of cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy, wood and derived products. With this regulation, the EU is seemingly recognising its position as one of th…
Is the EU shirking responsibility for its deforestation footprint in tropical countries? Power, material, and epistemic inequalities in the EU’s global environmental governance
This paper critically examines the European Union's (EU) role in tropical deforestation and the bloc's actions to mitigate it. We focus on two EU policy communications aimed at the challenge: stepping up EU action to protect and restore the world's forests and the EU updated bioeconomy strategy. In addition, we refer to the European Green Deal, which articulates the bloc's overarching vision for sustainability and transformations. We find that by…
Power imbalances, social inequalities and gender roles as barriers to true participation in national park management
Forest resource management has undergone profound changes in the last decades, including a tendency to apply participatory approach that seeks to involve local communities. However, the success of the participatory approach tends to remain dependent on the historical and societal context in question. To understand how the participation of forest communities has been changing as a result of the enforcement or non-enforcement of forest management p…
Redd+ policy translation and storylines in Laos
This article examines the (re)production of discourses and storylines in the process of policy translation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in Laos. Applying the concepts of policy discourses and policy translation, we first identify the prominent storylines at the various governance levels in Laos. Second, we compare and contrast these storylines with the global REDD+ discourses. Further, we discuss how dif…
Redd+ as a tool for state territorialization
This article analyzes the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) policy process, through the lens of state territorialization in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos). It explores the motivations, mechanisms and strategies that drive REDD+ policy design and its implementation in the country. The provinces selected for REDD+ activities within the Emission Reduction (ER) Program, as well as the various REDD+ …
Flegt
There has been recent debate around the role of ‘fads’ in global conservation measures, and the lessons they hold for achieving desired conservation and development outcomes. Fads are characterized by initially widespread enthusiasm and major mobilization of resources followed by abandonment in favor of the next fad. Debate centers less on whether such fads exist, but rather on whether they represent opportunities for incremental policy learning,…
The impacts of deterrence, social norms and legitimacy on forest rule compliance in Ghana
How can relational, decolonial and feminist approaches inform the EU bioeconomy
In this commentary we argue that, to transform the bioeconomy sectors towards ecologically less harmful and socially fairer outcomes, the bioeconomy policy project must be questioned, re-politicised and fundamentally reframed and reinvented. We firstly identify some of the main root causes for continuity of extractivism and injustices in the bioeconomy policy and, more broadly, in the green transition (“Root causes of today’s socioecological cris…
Democracy through technocracy? Reinventing civil society as a state-monitored and unpaid service provider in the EU FLEGT VPA in Laos
This paper analyses the European Union’s (EU’s) democratising agenda within the frame of the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) in Laos. In particular, it focuses on the requirement for the participation of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the VPA and the Lao state actors’ responses to this requirement. I frame the VPA’s democratising agenda and its conditionality of civil society …
What drives forest rule compliance behaviour in the Congo Basin? A study of local communities in Cameroon
Environmental justice and Redd+ safeguards in Laos
Balancing agendas for climate mitigation and environmental justice continues to be one of the key challenges in climate change governance mechanisms, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+). In this paper we apply the three-dimensional environmental justice framework as a lens to examine the REDD+ process in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) and the REDD+ social safeguards. We focus particularly on challeng…
Why some forest rules are obeyed and others violated by farmers in Ghana
The impacts of deterrence, social norms and legitimacy on forest rule compliance in Ghana
Synergies among social safeguards in FLEGT and Redd + in Cameroon
Sustainable development – A ‘selling point’ of the emerging EU bioeconomy policy framework?
Flegt
There has been recent debate around the role of ‘fads’ in global conservation measures, and the lessons they hold for achieving desired conservation and development outcomes. Fads are characterized by initially widespread enthusiasm and major mobilization of resources followed by abandonment in favor of the next fad. Debate centers less on whether such fads exist, but rather on whether they represent opportunities for incremental policy learning,…
Mapping policy actor networks and their interests in the FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement in Lao PDR
The most powerful actors in the VPA policy network are the central government and the international development partners. • Domestic CSOs and village authorities are the least politically powerful actors in the VPA policy network in Lao PDR. • Strong policy preferences are noted for all aspects of timber legality, transparency and accountability. • Weaker policy preferences are noted for forest communities’ rights and livelihoods, and for civil s…
Redd+ as a tool for state territorialization
This article analyzes the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) policy process, through the lens of state territorialization in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos). It explores the motivations, mechanisms and strategies that drive REDD+ policy design and its implementation in the country. The provinces selected for REDD+ activities within the Emission Reduction (ER) Program, as well as the various REDD+ …
Power relations in community resilience and politics of shifting cultivation in Laos
This article is a contribution to a critical resilience literature that emphasizes the lack of recognition and consideration of social and power relations, the complexity of local cultural heterogeneity and aspects of justice in current resilience approaches. We base our contribution on an empirical study related to policy and project interventions implemented by governmental agencies and international development partners in Laos. The studied in…
Redd+ policy translation and storylines in Laos
This article examines the (re)production of discourses and storylines in the process of policy translation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in Laos. Applying the concepts of policy discourses and policy translation, we first identify the prominent storylines at the various governance levels in Laos. Second, we compare and contrast these storylines with the global REDD+ discourses. Further, we discuss how dif…
Power imbalances, social inequalities and gender roles as barriers to true participation in national park management
Forest resource management has undergone profound changes in the last decades, including a tendency to apply participatory approach that seeks to involve local communities. However, the success of the participatory approach tends to remain dependent on the historical and societal context in question. To understand how the participation of forest communities has been changing as a result of the enforcement or non-enforcement of forest management p…
Environmental justice and Redd+ safeguards in Laos
Balancing agendas for climate mitigation and environmental justice continues to be one of the key challenges in climate change governance mechanisms, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+). In this paper we apply the three-dimensional environmental justice framework as a lens to examine the REDD+ process in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) and the REDD+ social safeguards. We focus particularly on challeng…
What drives forest rule compliance behaviour in the Congo Basin? A study of local communities in Cameroon
From pro-growth and planetary limits to degrowth and decoloniality
In 2012, the European Commission (EC) introduced the new bio-based economy or bioeconomy policy project, since adopted by about 50 countries. Alongside politicians, various research and other interest groups have promoted the bioeconomy as inevitable, apolitical, and a triple-win strategy for nature, people, and the economy. Recently, bioeconomy is also actively promoted and framed as transformative. Yet what is transformative or even new in the …
Envisioning just transformations in and beyond the EU bioeconomy
The European Union (EU) is adhering to decarbonization of its economy to tackle what is narrowly framed as 'environmental issues' of our socioecological and civilizational crises-including, but not limited to, climate change and biodiversity loss. A shift to bio-based economy (bioeconomy) is an important component of this effort. This paper applies theoretical ideas from decolonial environmental justice and degrowth, placed in the wider context o…
Tackling Conflicts, Supporting Livelihoods
While most of the literature on park management and nature conservation has focused on the negative implications for local people's livelihoods, fewer studies have empirically analysed local people's strategies in responding to these policies and renegotiating their position to continue their traditional livelihoods using their traditional knowledge and legal systems. This study contributes to the current literature on nature conservation by focu…
From hegemony-reinforcing to hegemony-transcending transformations
In the face of ever escalating global socioecological crises, the necessity of radical systemic transformations has gained increasing political and academic traction over the last decade, among others in the context of ‘green’ and bio-based economies. We draw on the works of political philosophers Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Judith Butler to develop a typology of transformational dynamics. In this typology, the word transformation implies …
Is the EU shirking responsibility for its deforestation footprint in tropical countries? Power, material, and epistemic inequalities in the EU’s global environmental governance
This paper critically examines the European Union's (EU) role in tropical deforestation and the bloc's actions to mitigate it. We focus on two EU policy communications aimed at the challenge: stepping up EU action to protect and restore the world's forests and the EU updated bioeconomy strategy. In addition, we refer to the European Green Deal, which articulates the bloc's overarching vision for sustainability and transformations. We find that by…
The more things change, the more they stay the same
This editorial lays out the core themes of the special feature and provides an overview of the contributions. It introduces the main argument, namely that the promises of far-reaching change made by recent bioeconomy policies are in fact strategically directed at avoiding transformative change to existing societal arrangements. Bioeconomy discourse showcases technological solutions purported to solve sustainability ‘problems’ while sustaining eco…
Indigenous Knowledge in the Amazon's Bioeconomy
Neoliberal pathways to the bioeconomy
Global capitalism has changed the Earth system to the extent that the current epoch is called the Anthropocene. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), land use change has played a crucial role in this profound functional shift in the Earth system. The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and its follow-up processes have insisted the same regarding the persisting decline in biodiversity. To shed light on the institutional a…
Transformation or more of the same? The EU’s deforestation-free products regulation through a radical transformation lens
The European Union (EU) is a major consumer of forest-risks commodities and therefore a key contributor to imported deforestation. In 2023, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) entered into force, which aims to counter the imported deforestation resulting from EU consumption of cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy, wood and derived products. With this regulation, the EU is seemingly recognising its position as one of th…
Democracy through technocracy? Reinventing civil society as a state-monitored and unpaid service provider in the EU FLEGT VPA in Laos
This paper analyses the European Union’s (EU’s) democratising agenda within the frame of the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) in Laos. In particular, it focuses on the requirement for the participation of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the VPA and the Lao state actors’ responses to this requirement. I frame the VPA’s democratising agenda and its conditionality of civil society …
How can relational, decolonial and feminist approaches inform the EU bioeconomy
In this commentary we argue that, to transform the bioeconomy sectors towards ecologically less harmful and socially fairer outcomes, the bioeconomy policy project must be questioned, re-politicised and fundamentally reframed and reinvented. We firstly identify some of the main root causes for continuity of extractivism and injustices in the bioeconomy policy and, more broadly, in the green transition (“Root causes of today’s socioecological cris…
Ghana’s landscape approach to Redd
Equity in unilateral value chain policies
Political science (20 works) · Business (13 works) · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management (13 works) · Economics (13 works) · Geography (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Bioeconomy and Sustainability Development (8 works)