Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist

Local Identity, Science and Politics Indivisible: The Swedish Wolf Controversy Deconstructed

Abstract Although its numbers are steadily increasing, authorities, experts and environmentalists still consider the Scandinavian wolf population to be threatened due to poor pedigree and unlawful killings. An integrated predator policy stipulates that conflicts regarding carnivores must be minimized to assure them continued existence. The recovery of the Scandinavian wolf population has, however, been increasingly contested. While the view that Sweden should take actions to preserve and maintain a wolf population is widely supported by authorities, nature organizations and many members of the public, others disagree, emphasizing that local traditions, values and meanings are being jeopardized as a result of the recovery aims and practices of wolf management. The goal of the central state to work towards the recovery of wolves in Sweden is essentially not a conflict over wolves. Instead, the controversy illustrates how divergent perceptions of the local environment can be understood to constitute inconsistencies regarding how to understand the landscape, and most importantly, what the landscape conveys to people through providing a context for their relationships with ‘nature’ and with each other. It is in this setting that the recovery of endangered and protected predators unfolds. As will be demonstrated here, central state efforts to achieve an ecosystem that secures the survival of endangered wildlife creates a highly charged political context in which issues of cultural identity, local knowledge and expert science are indivisible.

Conflicting perspectives on water in a Swedish railway tunnel project

The building of a railway tunnel through the Hallandsas ridge in the southwest of Sweden resulted in sinking groundwater levels and a toxic spill for the local community. As a result, this highly technological project expanded from the addressing of technological and economic issues of rail traffic and tunnel building to include issues of environmental harm and how to assess and manage the geology of the ridge. A central concern for local residents as well as for the developer has been how to view and interpret the resource of groundwater. This article focuses on groundwater as a boundary object, bordering the domains of the technologists and the local community. In this situation, technological understanding and knowledge confronts an experience-based understanding and a symbolic interpretation of the water resource.

Don't forget to look down - collaborative approaches to predator conservation

Finding effective ways of conserving large carnivores is widely recognised as a priority in conservation. However, there is disagreement about the most effective way to do this, with some favouring top‐down ‘command and control’ approaches and others favouring collaboration. Arguments for coercive top‐down approaches have been presented elsewhere; here we present arguments for collaboration. In many parts of the developed world, flexibility of approach is built into the legislation, so that conservation objectives are balanced with other legitimate goals. In the developing world, limited resources, poverty and weak governance mean that collaborative approaches are likely to play a particularly important part in carnivore conservation. In general, coercive policies may lead to the deterioration of political legitimacy and potentially to non‐compliance issues such as illegal killing, whereas collaborative approaches may lead to psychological ownership, enhanced trust, learning, and better social outcomes. Sustainable hunting/trapping plays a crucial part in the conservation and management of many large carnivores. There are many different models for how to conserve carnivores effectively across the world, research is now required to reduce uncertainty and examine the effectiveness of these approaches in different contexts.

The management of large carnivores in Sweden — challenges and opportunities

C. Sandstrom (camilla.sandstrom@umu.se), Dept of Political Science, Umea University, SE-901 87 Umea, Sweden. – M. Johansson, Environmental Psychology, Dept of Architecture and Built Environment, Lund University, PO Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden. – A. Sjolander Lindqvist, School of Global Studies, Univ. of Gothenburg, Box 700, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden, and: Gothenburg Research Inst. (GRI), Univ. of Gothenburg, Box 100, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden

The effects of environmental uncertainty on farmers' sense of locality and futurity: a Swedish case study

The aim of this paper is to explore local reactions to the environmental problems derived from the building of a train tunnel through the largest ground water reservoir in southern Sweden. The present and the future of the community have been put into question through an intensified local discourse on issues of ‘risk’, ‘identity’, ‘nature’ and ‘social continuity’. In this discourse meanings, values and traditional knowledge relating to the landscape and the place where people have lived for generations play a prominent role. Questions that are addressed in the present paper are: How does toxic contamination and falling ground water levels affect single‐family households, small‐scale family agricultural producers and large‐scale farms in terms of changed perspectives and concerns for their environment, livelihoods and the local community? What are the effects for a farming community from uncertainty about how the natural environment will respond to a technological impact on the landscape? This paper is based on field observations and in‐depth interviews conducted in two local communities on the Hallandsås ridge in the province of Skåne in south‐west Sweden.

Balancing differentiated interests and conceptualizations in environmental management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the everyday practices and routines undertaken by an authority to support internal coordination and deal with sector-specific interests and conflicting goals, and how exclusive interests and objectives in policy work are construed, understood, and negotiated in practice. Design/methodology/approach – An institutional ethnographic approach was adopted to investigate how policy-formulated goals, bureaucratic aims, and rules establish a frame for action procedures and alternatives available for agency-level collaboration. Findings – The results of this study reveal how compromise and agreement may be difficult to achieve in practice since each concerned administrative unit has its own sets of criteria concerning what constitutes valid or valuable knowledge of aspects relating to river restoration. The study illustrates how lack of knowledge affects collaboration, how the policy process is informed by sector-specific rules and norms for organizational conduct,...

Governing Large Carnivores : Comparative Insights from Three Different Countries

ABSTRACT The governance of large carnivores is often surrounded by conflicts. Along with the difficulties of governing large carnivores through centralized, top-down governing and a general shift towards participatory approaches in natural resource governance, this has led many countries to establish various collaborative measures in large carnivore governance – often presented as a catch-all solution to problems of legitimacy, democratic deficit and effectiveness. However, the field of large carnivore governance currently lacks a coherent understanding of strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of collaborative arrangements. In this paper, we address this knowledge gap. Using the framework of modes of governance to categorize and compare the governance of large carnivores in Norway, Sweden and Finland, we discuss the potential and limitations of various governance modes and identify gaps in contemporary research literature. The main conclusion is that all three governance systems need to incorporate more interactive governance elements.

Locality management through cultural diversity: the case of the Majella National Park, Italy.

Abstract To get the support of local communities for the Majella National Park in the Italian Abruzzo region, the park administration decided to celebrate the relationship between human activity and nature. This was to be done through developing a “new rural culture.” Using the memories and reminiscences of local inhabitants, and involving farmers in the reintroduction of fruits, vegetables and cereals that had formerly been grown in the area, local communities were encouraged to take an active part in landscape management. This study addresses how the promotion of local food was employed as a strategy to gain support for management regimes. The results indicate that the initiation of localized food production served to realize the political goals for sustainability and rural development. However, while those farmers, shop-keepers and restaurateurs who have been involved in management concur with the strategies for safeguarding natural and cultural heritage, other entrepreneurs feel marginalized and undervalued, becoming more skeptical of the park with the passage of time.