Re-articulating forest politics through “rights to forest” and “rights of forest”

Bibliographic Data

ID8943776
AuthorsEija Meriläinen (0000-0001-7813-9588, Örebro University, corresponding author), Ari Lehtinen (0000-0001-8525-6328, University of Eastern Finland), Ari A Lehtinen
Year2022
Volume133
Pages89-100
Publication date2022-05-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeoforum (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7185 • E-ISSN: 1872-9398
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.05.010
OpenAlexW4281956435
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited73

Forests, and the politics around them, are posited both as a cause of and solution to the contemporary ecological crisis. This paper explores how rights to forest and rights of forest conceptualisations can re-articulate, and potentially challenge, the problematic dominance of capitalist forest politics in Northern Finland and beyond. Conceptually, the paper combines the debates on rights-to-nature and rights-of-nature. Rights-to-nature is concerned with how people can access and use nature to support their lives. Rights-of-nature, meanwhile, highlights the nature’s intrinsic value and the rights of indigenous peoples. Combining the two perspectives might allow imagining politics of nature that is both ecologically and socially just. Empirically, the paper studies forest politics in Tornio River valley in Northern Finland through an ethnographic case study. The rights-to-nature conceptualisation associates locally with the existing use rights and ownership rights. Rights-to-nature may guarantee access to a forest, but it does not guarantee its existence. Rights-of-nature, meanwhile, associates with strong conservation, nature’s power, and indigenous land rights. However, also the rights-of-nature conceptualisation is unlikely to challenge the gradual degradation of most Northern forests, as these “boring” forests lack both recognised human stewardship and intrinsic value. Thus, in the study area the rights conceptualisations do not decisively challenge the existing forest politics, even if the framings can acquire a more radical content. Overall, this paper shows that transnational rights discourses and conceptualisations entangle with local common senses. Factoring in the local understandings is essential for re-articulating politics of nature that could receive broad local support

Dominance (genetics · Environmental ethics · Environmentalism · Fundamental rights · Human rights · Indigenous · Indigenous rights · Political science · Politics · Right to property · Rights of Nature · Sociology · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Ecology · Forest Management and Policy · Law

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