HERC Seminar: Current Trends in
Environmental Research 20.9.2007
New Models in Nature
Resource Management
Erland Eklund
In collaboration with
Susanna Björkell & Ville Klemets
20.9.2007
Svenska social- och kommunalhögskolan
Objectives & aims of the NERM
study
 analysing new models of co-management in
nature resource management
 models targeted to meet tasks especially at the
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kommunalhögskolan
regional and local level of environmental
administration
-implementation of specific biodiversity
regulations in protection programmes
-new environmental regulation concerning
agricultural and forest land
-regulation concerning leisure / tourist use of
private land
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Objectives & aims (2)
 Test together with regional authorities and other
regional and local institutions & associations the
model in one or two actual tasks
 Chosen region: the Kvarken coast &
archipelago. Cases based on Kvarkenrådets
(Kvarken Council) development projects in
environmental administration (Kvarken miljö)
 Analysing multiple forms of knowledge
 ”The quest for participation and comanagement”
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kommunalhögskolan
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Multiple forms of knowledge
Historic local
knowledge on use
of nature and its
regulation
Professional /expert knowledge on
nature and its formal regulations
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kommunalhögskolan
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Personnel
 Susanna Björkell, PhD student (biology)
 Erland Eklund, Senior Researcher (sociology;
Professor of Rural Studies)
 Ville Klemets, Pol.Stud., Sociology
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kommunalhögskolan
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International co-operation
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kommunalhögskolan
a) Two Swedish-Norwegian-Finnish workshops
on ”Förvaltning av omstridda naturresurser –
nordiska trender och utmaningar” (Management
of disputed nature resources – Nordic trends
and challenges). Book will be published late
2007 (in Sweden). Eds. Eva Falleth & Camilla
Sandström
b) Cornell University Workshop, October 2007 on
Sustainability and project management (Prof.
Steven Wolf)
c) Comparative research on sustainability and
rural development Wales-Ostrobothnia.
(Marsden, Eklund, Franklin)
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Study sites
Bergö-Malax outer Archipelago
(Rönnskären)
 Köklot village (Mustasaari / Korsholm)
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kommunalhögskolan
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Study sites
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kommunalhögskolan
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Natura 2000 areas in Kvarken
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kommunalhögskolan
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kommunalhögskolan
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kommunalhögskolan
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Methods
 Interviews with key persons / actors
 Participatory observation at formal & informal
meetings
 Public documents, working documents
 Comparative seminars with researchers on comanagement in other countries
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kommunalhögskolan
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The quest for citizen participation in
nature resource management
 General acceptance of the need for more
participatory planning & decision making in
nature protection (& nature resource
management). “Lets forget Natura 2000!”
See e.g. B. Gilligan, N. Dudley, A. Fernandez de Tejada, H.
Toivonen 2005: Management Efectiveness Evaluation of
Finland's Protected Areas. Metsähallitus. Series A 147
BUT:
 Different laws on nature resource management
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kommunalhögskolan
give different room for participation: Nature
Conservation Act (&) Decree is extremely poor
in this sense; Land Use and Building Act gives
much room for citizen participation
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Case 1: Use and Management Plan for BergöMalax outer Archipelago (Rönnskären)
 What is a U&M Plan?
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kommunalhögskolan
Nature Conservation Act 1996, Section 19:
“A special plan shall be drafted for the management and use
of a national park, specifying the measures necessary for
attaining its conservation objectives. As necessary, a
management plan may also be drafted for a strict
nature reserve or other nature reserve. The
management plan shall be drafted by the authority or
agency in charge of the nature reserve. The plan shall be
ratified by the Ministry of the Environment”
-a handbook where users – authorities and the citizens are informed about what can be done or not done in the
area
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Content of U & M Plan
 1. General information about the site & planning
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kommunalhögskolan
process
 2. Site description and state of knowledge &
documentation (geology, cultural history, land
use, specificity of nature etc)
 3. Use and protection guidelines; endangered
species, risks, restrictions of building,
movement, hunting etc.
 U & M Plan for Bergö Malax is worked out with
extra financial support from the Kvarken Council
in order to fulfil high expectations on
participation and co-management. Metsähallitus
in charge of the U & M planning work.
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Background
 Long time Kvarken-Interreg co-operation on
participatory methods in nature conservation
management:
”skapa förutsättningar för en dialog och
delaktighet mellan medborgare, politiker och
tjänstemän i naturskyddsfrågor; engagera fler
aktörer i naturvårdsarbetet”
 Natura 2000: Bergö-Malax outer Archipelago
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kommunalhögskolan
(Rönnskären) has an endangered population of
greater scaup (lapasotka, bergand).
Preservation required according to the Bird
Directive. A Use and Management Plan needed.
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Case study 2 : Köklot village vision
 Objective: A plan for sustainable development of
the village
 Original strategy: local meetings without
steering from public agencies with the objective
to put together a common (sustainable) vision
for the village community. Parallel case in
Sweden
 Not enough local interest at the start
 Alternative strategy: Questionnaire to find out
about common visions for the future
→ guest harbour / marina suggested
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kommunalhögskolan
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 For the moment: a village association is being
founded in order to take care of the marina
project and the future work on a village plan for
sustainable development
 Köklot case indicates: Participation has to be
regarded as relevant by the participants
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kommunalhögskolan
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Design for participation, Bergö-Malax U&M
Plan
Info meetings for the public
Thematic working groups:
hunting, fishing, tourism & recreation,
history & culture biotops
OBS!
Co-production of text (local citizens &
planners) for the Use and management
plan
Follow-up team
Using the Web for information &
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kommunalhögskolan
document publication
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Stakeholder representation at the
opening meeting
 Local associations for fishery
 Local associations for ancient monuments
 Local associations for hunting
 The board of local community landowners (skifteslag,
jakokunta)
 The Bergö island council (Bergö is the closest inhabited
village)
 The municipality of Malax
 Seasonal inhabitants
 The Swedish Ostrobothnian hunting district
 The regional environment centre
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kommunalhögskolan
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Key form of participation: open
thematic meetings
 A series of open stakeholder / thematic meetings
 All the parts sit together and discuss, exchange
knowledge and write the text for the plan
 Landowners, users, local visitors and distant visitors
etc
 Civil servants have an important role – set the agenda
and steer the meetings
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kommunalhögskolan
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kommunalhögskolan
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Results and reflexions (1):
two management regimes - in dialog
The peasant state regime
The ecological state regime
Historical local
co-management of
Public efforts to enhance
village commons –
participation in nature
common pool
conservation planning
resources. OBS the
(establish co-
landelevation
management?)
process
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kommunalhögskolan
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Results and reflexions (2): Participation
or co-management
 Co-management:
A collaborative and participatory process of
regulatory decision-making among representatives of
user-groups, government and research institutions
(Jentoft et al. 1998)
 The Bergö-Malax case:
local stakeholders & their knowledge are influencing
the process (“hörda i sak”) but not co-partner in
decision making
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kommunalhögskolan
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Some key questions
 How ”far” can the civil servants go (if they want)
in ”compromising” / follow local suggestions /
recommendations? Do regional authorities have
mandate to truly make regional / local U& M
Plans? (“regional derogations”, NC Act, 16)
 Can a new co-management regime be
developed within the frame of the NC Act? Or
must the NCA be reformed?
 From “hands off” to “hands on” in nature
conservation policy?
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kommunalhögskolan
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Some key questions
 What will happen if the representatives of the
local land & water owners (skifteslaget) do not
accept the U&M Plan
 Who are participating on the behalf of the local
community? Are there important “internal
voices” that have not been heard?
 To which degree can the U & M planning be
described as a “learning process”
 The question of administrative continuity
(change of personal during the process); the
“projectification tendency”
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kommunalhögskolan
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Results and reflexions (3)
 Re-framing of the U & M planning process
during the last year:
The status of Bergö-Malax archipelago as a
Unesco World Natural Heritage Site
(www.kvarken.fi)
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kommunalhögskolan
Some consequences:
-less conservation and more tourist development
discourse
-some hope of getting more development
resources for the village
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Results and reflexions (4): what could
“protecting cultural heritage” be?
 ”Cultural heritage in the spotlight” (Metsähallitus
Natural Heritage Service Annual Report 2006)
 “Protecting cultural heritage is becoming
increasingly interlinked with the NHS nature
conservation work” (p.10)
 Innovative understanding of Cultural heritage
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kommunalhögskolan
needed: Cultural heritage is built every day
among people living in nature preservation
areas. Nature preservation needs the presence
of the all people living today in the area.
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Reflexions on method
 Researching co-management / participation
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kommunalhögskolan
requires participation of the researchers –
practical problems of time & costs & transports
 In the NERM project a large amount of empirical
findings has been gathered - key person
interviews, written materials from meetings –
gives room form more analyses and
comparisons with development in other
countries
 The question of timing: how to synchronize
”real” planning processes with research projects
 Multidisciplinary: biology & sociology & policy
studies is a very fruitful compot
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