Teijo Rytteri

Formation of Finland's National Parks as a Political Issue

This paper analyses the political discourse of Finnish national parks from a perspective of values and justice. By examining the historical and contemporary political processes for establishing parks, we study the definitions of social justice and values attached to nature. An examination of conservation discourse illustrates how the meaning of national parks has changed. Parks are no longer perceived as threats to economic activity; on the contrary, at present parks are considered to benefit the tourism industry. We also argue that a precondition for a socially sustainable solution to political conflict is the definition of minimum rights accepted by all interest groups. For if nature is nothing if its not social, its also unavoidably political. (Castree, 2001, p. 18)

THE ART OF NEOLIBERALIZING PARK MANAGEMENT: COMMODIFICATION, POLITICS AND HOTEL CONSTRUCTION IN PALLASYLLÄSTUNTURI NATIONAL PARK, FINLAND

Abstract. Following the growth of nature‐based tourism, national parks and other protected areas have become important tourist attractions. This article examines the legislative process of revising the Act on Pallas‐Yllästunturi National Park, located in northern Finland, to enable the renovation and enlargement of the old hotel. The first draft of the government bill published in 2008 led to widespread public opposition, and thus, construction rights were reduced substantially before the new Act was passed in 2010. The main question of this article is why the Finnish government changed its policy on national park governance that had existed for decades. We assess the extent to which the changes in park governance can be interpreted as part of the worldwide neoliberalization of nature, as well as what kind of forces and values work against neoliberal management ideologies. We examine how the process of revising the Act proceeded in the Parliament and analyse on what grounds the hotel construction was defended and opposed in the discussions. Finally we ponder how the political disagreements are explained by neoliberal frames. We conclude that the neoliberal element was one part of the process, but it intertwined with local political reality creating results hardly resembling textbook definitions of neoliberal or classic liberal ideals. Mixed ideological principles, contextual economic conditions, and complex dependencies between individual actors create cases which must be analysed carefully to find out if neoliberal elements really exist and how they are transformed. Close relations between economic and political actors and creation of economic monopolies should raise doubts if vocabulary of liberalization is just a disguise of actions supporting hidden political and economic interests.

EU policy on the move – mobility and domestic translation of the European Union’s renewable energy policy

ABSTRACT We discuss how the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive was designed to be mobile, and how it was moved to and implemented in Finland by translating it to enhance wood-based energy production through specific subsidies. We study policy-making as a mobile process, which approach has its original roots in political science and more recent basis in political geography. The article aims to develop conceptual understanding of how the mobility of a supranational policy is generated and how a policy is translated into complex and contentious geographical contexts. We aim to show that mobility of a directive is enabled by an empty governance space which is aimed to be ‘filled in’ in each spatial context, and that the filling in process makes each translation a contentious and path-dependent process. In Finland, the selected policy tools and practices continued the path-dependent ways of favouring forestry industry’s traditional position as the primary utiliser of forest resources.

Metsäteollisuusyhdyskunnat ja yksipuolisuuden loukku

Parin viime vuoden aikana metsäteollisuuden kansainvälistymisen vaikutukset ovat heijastuneet paikallistasolle toden teolla. Metsäteollisuus on kärsinyt huonosta kannattavuudesta jo usean vuoden ajan johtuen painopaperin tuotannon ylikapasiteetista ja toisaalta paperinkulutuksen vähenemisestä länsimaissa. Kustannusten karsimiseksi metsäteollisuuskonsernit ovat sulkeneet yksiköitään, vähentäneet väkeä ja tuotannon painopistettä on siirretty raaka-ainekustannuksiltaan edullisempiin maihin. Tilannetta on pahentanut syksyn 2008 aikana iskenyt maailmantalouden lama. Todennäköistä on, että metsäteollisuuden rakennemuutos jatkuu laman jälkeenkin. Miten metsätalouden myllerryksen vaikutuksia voidaan tulkita oikein ja kuinka tulevaisuuteen pitäisi varautua? Tämän kirjoituksen tavoitteena on jäsentää maailmanlaajuisen ja paikallisen talouskehityksen suhdetta talousmaantieteellisen ja taloushistoriallisen teo rian näkökulmasta. Tarkastelunäkökulman tuloksena esitämme, että olisi aiempaa enemmän kiinnitettävä huomiota yksittäisten tuotantolaitosten säilymisen lisäksi siihen, miten metsästä riippuvainen alue talous laajemmin ymmärrettynä pääsee kehittymään. Lisäksi ehdotamme, että alueellisten metsäohjel mien laadinnan yhteydessä arvioitaisiin ja tuotettaisiin tietoa siitä, mitkä ovat esimerkiksi metsäsektoria tukevan elinkeinopolitiikan odotetut ja ei-toivotut seuraukset alueen elinkeinoelämässä. Resurssiyhdyskunta tapuliteorian näkökulmasta