Nature-based livelihoods and nature-related traditions play a significant role in the lives of Finns. Fishing, hunting, and berry picking have been part of Finnish lifestyles and livelihoods for thousands of years. However, the ecological crisis has created a serious need for social change, namely the sustainability transformation. The sustainability transformation should simultaneously increase renewable energy production while ensuring the preservation and restoration of biodiversity in socially and culturally sustainable ways.
A t a citizen workshop and webinar held in Kemijärvi, it was discussed how we could reconcile traditional nature-based livelihoods and ways of life with the changes required by the sustainability transformation. The workshop participants were challenged to identify factors dictating the use of nature in the past, present, and future, and to reflect on and discuss their impacts both in Kemijärvi and in their own lives.
The natural resource -dependent industrial city’s identity as a historical constraint
In the section focusing on the past, workshop participants considered the constraints and obstacles imposed by the past. The key question was how the state of nature and ways of using nature have created or impaired the future conditions for living and earning a livelihood in Kemijärvi. The participants identified lake regulation, forest logging, the old industrial town’s identity and its impact on people’s attitudes, as well as the lack of and difficulties with cooperation as the most significant challenges of the past.
Kemijärvi is an old industrial town where the largest employer used to be a pulp mill that ceased operations in 2008. In the workshop, one of the key limitations identified by participants was the identity and attitudes created by the old industrial town, where people trusted the mill alone to save the town’s economy and employment situation. The attitudes in the industrial town have slowed down and somewhat prevented the development of an environment that encourages small-scale entrepreneurship.
Kemijärvi was seen as having enormous unexploited potential for the development of nature-based livelihoods. Here the key obstacle was also identified as the attitudes shaped by the old industrial town. Partly for the same reason, the workshop participants felt that cooperation between the city and small entrepreneurs has not been smooth. Their view is that the city focuses mainly on promoting large industrial projects. Meanwhile, the input of municipal citizens, especially those engaged in nature-based livelihoods, is not accounted for in decision-making. That is to say, the workshop participants felt that citizens are heard but not listened to.
Photo: Heidi Nummi
The regulation of Lake Kemijärvi was a prominent topic in both the preliminary interviews and the workshop. Lake Kemijärvi is already the most regulated natural lake in Finland, which has a significant impact on nature-based livelihoods such as fishing. The fishermen’s accounts clearly showed how unpredictable the winter ice conditions can be, which in turn has a significant impact on fishing and nature tourism. In addition, the participants mentioned the failure of fish spawning due to winter regulation.
Another factor affecting nature-based livelihoods and the use of nature is forest logging. According to workshop participants, logging has a particular impact on nature tourism. This is because it takes a long time for a forest suitable for nature tourism to replace the logged forest area. Preliminary interviews also revealed the negative effects of wind power on nature tourism, particularly in terms of the landscape.
New traces of renewable energy in remote areas
The section focusing on the present examined the current state of Kemijärvi, existing plans, and their impact on the future. The participants selected the following as the most important current factors: appreciation of ’the small things’ in the community, meaning cherishing what they already have, the values present in energy politics, and continuing to recognize the value of nature. The workshop participants felt that the values held in energy politics have a significant impact on the future of Kemijärvi. However, the state of nature in Kemijärvi was considered to be decent, even though the discussions about the past highlighted the negative impacts of logging and water regulation on nature and the use of natural resources. According to the workshop participants, Kemijärvi still has more nature that has preserved its beauty than other areas, but they also recognized that nature is currently facing many threats.
The participants envisioned that, in the future, Kemijärvi could start profiling itself as a place of nature tourism and natural products.
One of the key energy policy issues mentioned by the participants was the pressure from the state to increase wind power and balancing power. A notable threat to nature and the future of nature-based livelihoods and nature use is the pumped storage power plant planned by Kemijoki Oy, which would have a significant impact on the region’s water system and nature. The participants feared that it would further weaken the opportunities for nature tourism and fishing and damage the natural environment. There was also scepticism regarding the benefits of wind power and balancing power to the city. The suspicion was that the benefits would rather accrue to a small group of interested parties. A workshop participant also raised a good question about whether one region has an obligation to provide balancing power for the entire country.
Nature nostalgia of the future
The section dealing with the future considered various imaginaries and visions for what is to come. The participants envisioned that, in the future, Kemijärvi could start profiling itself as a place of nature tourism and natural products. In terms of the former, Kemijärvi was imagined as a unique tourist attraction where visitors could experience the authenticity of a small destination where ’everything is still fine’ – where nature is still clean and beautiful. Instead of mass tourism, tourism on a smaller scale with possibilities to do activities in the nature was seen as more desirable. The utilization of natural products, especially when it comes to fishing, was also seen as a potential business opportunity.
Photo: Heidi Nummi
The participants considered the most important preconditions for realizing the vision to be strengthening cooperation, recognizing and utilizing the uniqueness of Kemijärvi, and understanding the potential of nature tourism and local products. It was also recognized that changes are needed in municipal politics and decision-making, which were perceived as very slow and undemocratic.
From human livelihoods to multispecies livelihoods
In her introduction to the webinar held at Pyhätunturi, postdoctoral researcher Veera Kinnunen presented the concept of elonkeino – derived from the Finnish word for livelihood – which she has developed in collaboration with researchers Pieta Savinotko, Anu Valtonen, and Joona Vola. The concept refers to activity in a broad sense as relationships between humans, species, and living and non-living entities, in which the conditions for life are nurtured. Similar thinking was also evident in the citizen workshop, which emphasized the importance of cooperation and activity between people and between people and nature.
In her presentation, Sanna Hast highlighted the challenges of coordinating reindeer herding and other land use and the new practices associated with them. In order to achieve the many parallel objectives set for northern forests, efforts to reconcile the activities related to forestry, biodiversity objectives, and sustainable reindeer herding will change forestry and reindeer herding practices as we know them. By taking the practices of different livelihoods as a starting point for this process, it is possible to assess whether the use of the same forest land by different livelihoods is possible and under what conditions.
— traditions in which humans coexist with nature are important factors in constructing the idea of living nature.
In his presentation, Jarno Valkonen, professor at the University of Lapland, reflected on the sustainability transformation through the concepts of living and non-living nature. According to Valkonen, climate change cannot be understood in the same way as a social change in which something changes and something else remains the same. Instead, climate change is a metamorphosis of the world, in which the world is reorganized in new and unpredictable ways. Valkonen believes that the sustainability transformation involves dismantling the old and building the new. Valkonen presented the idea of inanimate nature separate from life, which has been an important component of modern Western worldview and technology. When the idea of freely exploitable inanimate nature is dismantled, we are simultaneously able to build an understanding of living nature that allows us to see the world as a kind of evolving organism. It consists of countless smaller and larger ecosystems, and flows and networks connecting the living and non-living.
In his presentation, Valkonen also reflected on the importance of traditions in constructing living nature. He mentioned that traditions where humans coexist with nature are important factors in constructing the idea of living nature. When traditions of this kind are chosen as part of life politics, the question is not about reviving tradition, i.e. the return of something that has already been declared lost, but about something entirely new. It is about embracing tradition itself as a communal lifestyle choice.
The visions presented at the Kemijärvi citizen workshop emphasized coexisting with nature and embracing traditions related to nature-based livelihoods as a communal lifestyle choice. The key question remains how to reconcile nature-based livelihoods with the needed changes in the forestry and energy industries associated with the green transition.
Photo: Heidi Nummi
Moving forward with the Futures Triangle
The second citizen workshop and webinar of the Kestävyysmurroksen marginaalit (’Sustainability transformation from the margins’) project, held in Kemijärvi, discussed the effects of the sustainability transformation on nature-based livelihoods and people directly dependent on nature in Lapland. The theme of the citizen workshop was the future of nature-based livelihoods and nature use in Kemijärvi. The day after the citizen workshop, a webinar was held to report on the workshop and delve deeper into questions related to the sustainability transformation and nature cultures.
Entrepreneurs in the nature sector, other nature users, and nature conservationists were invited to participate in the Kemijärvi workshop. Prior to the citizen workshop, information on the local context was gathered by interviewing local government officials and six local nature entrepreneurs who had registered for the workshop. The workshop, which was attended by five entrepreneurs in the nature sector, utilized the Futures Triangle developed by futurist Sohail Inayatullah, which is particularly well suited for identifying factors that will influence the future of the selected theme.
ANNA MUSTONEN & TIMO KUUSIOLA
Header photo: Heidi Nummi
The article has been translated into English using an artificial intelligence translation program. The translation has been reviewed by an editor in Versus.
Kestävyysmurroksen marginaalit (’Sustainability transformation from the margins’) project
• The Argumenta Grant, funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
• The project involves researchers from the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Lapland, Tampere University, the Finnish Environment Institute, and think tanks PlanWe and Creatura.
• The aim is to increase participation of citizens who are geographically or socially marginalized, as well as facilitate interaction between different levels of society in the debate on sustainability.
• The project includes workshops for citizens and researchers, seminars, and communications.
Anna Mustonen is a doctoral researcher in environmental politics at the University of Eastern Finland’s Department of Geographical and Historical Studies. Anna is also a project manager of the Kestävyysmurroksen marginaalit (’Sustainability transformation from the margins’) project.
TIMO KUUSIOLA
Timo Kuusiola is a Master of Science in Recycling Technology and works at the University of Eastern Finland as deputy coordinator and workshop facilitator in the Kestävyysmurroksen marginaalit (’Sustainability transformation from the margins’) project.
Nature-based livelihoods and nature-related traditions play a significant role in the lives of Finns. Fishing, hunting, and berry picking have been part of Finnish lifestyles and livelihoods for thousands of years. However, the ecological crisis has created a serious need for social change, namely the sustainability transformation. The sustainability transformation should simultaneously increase renewable energy production while ensuring the preservation and restoration of biodiversity in socially and culturally sustainable ways.
A t a citizen workshop and webinar held in Kemijärvi, it was discussed how we could reconcile traditional nature-based livelihoods and ways of life with the changes required by the sustainability transformation. The workshop participants were challenged to identify factors dictating the use of nature in the past, present, and future, and to reflect on and discuss their impacts both in Kemijärvi and in their own lives.
The natural resource -dependent industrial city’s identity as a historical constraint
In the section focusing on the past, workshop participants considered the constraints and obstacles imposed by the past. The key question was how the state of nature and ways of using nature have created or impaired the future conditions for living and earning a livelihood in Kemijärvi. The participants identified lake regulation, forest logging, the old industrial town’s identity and its impact on people’s attitudes, as well as the lack of and difficulties with cooperation as the most significant challenges of the past.
Kemijärvi is an old industrial town where the largest employer used to be a pulp mill that ceased operations in 2008. In the workshop, one of the key limitations identified by participants was the identity and attitudes created by the old industrial town, where people trusted the mill alone to save the town’s economy and employment situation. The attitudes in the industrial town have slowed down and somewhat prevented the development of an environment that encourages small-scale entrepreneurship.
Kemijärvi was seen as having enormous unexploited potential for the development of nature-based livelihoods. Here the key obstacle was also identified as the attitudes shaped by the old industrial town. Partly for the same reason, the workshop participants felt that cooperation between the city and small entrepreneurs has not been smooth. Their view is that the city focuses mainly on promoting large industrial projects. Meanwhile, the input of municipal citizens, especially those engaged in nature-based livelihoods, is not accounted for in decision-making. That is to say, the workshop participants felt that citizens are heard but not listened to.
The regulation of Lake Kemijärvi was a prominent topic in both the preliminary interviews and the workshop. Lake Kemijärvi is already the most regulated natural lake in Finland, which has a significant impact on nature-based livelihoods such as fishing. The fishermen’s accounts clearly showed how unpredictable the winter ice conditions can be, which in turn has a significant impact on fishing and nature tourism. In addition, the participants mentioned the failure of fish spawning due to winter regulation.
Another factor affecting nature-based livelihoods and the use of nature is forest logging. According to workshop participants, logging has a particular impact on nature tourism. This is because it takes a long time for a forest suitable for nature tourism to replace the logged forest area. Preliminary interviews also revealed the negative effects of wind power on nature tourism, particularly in terms of the landscape.
New traces of renewable energy in remote areas
The section focusing on the present examined the current state of Kemijärvi, existing plans, and their impact on the future. The participants selected the following as the most important current factors: appreciation of ’the small things’ in the community, meaning cherishing what they already have, the values present in energy politics, and continuing to recognize the value of nature. The workshop participants felt that the values held in energy politics have a significant impact on the future of Kemijärvi. However, the state of nature in Kemijärvi was considered to be decent, even though the discussions about the past highlighted the negative impacts of logging and water regulation on nature and the use of natural resources. According to the workshop participants, Kemijärvi still has more nature that has preserved its beauty than other areas, but they also recognized that nature is currently facing many threats.
One of the key energy policy issues mentioned by the participants was the pressure from the state to increase wind power and balancing power. A notable threat to nature and the future of nature-based livelihoods and nature use is the pumped storage power plant planned by Kemijoki Oy, which would have a significant impact on the region’s water system and nature. The participants feared that it would further weaken the opportunities for nature tourism and fishing and damage the natural environment. There was also scepticism regarding the benefits of wind power and balancing power to the city. The suspicion was that the benefits would rather accrue to a small group of interested parties. A workshop participant also raised a good question about whether one region has an obligation to provide balancing power for the entire country.
Nature nostalgia of the future
The section dealing with the future considered various imaginaries and visions for what is to come. The participants envisioned that, in the future, Kemijärvi could start profiling itself as a place of nature tourism and natural products. In terms of the former, Kemijärvi was imagined as a unique tourist attraction where visitors could experience the authenticity of a small destination where ’everything is still fine’ – where nature is still clean and beautiful. Instead of mass tourism, tourism on a smaller scale with possibilities to do activities in the nature was seen as more desirable. The utilization of natural products, especially when it comes to fishing, was also seen as a potential business opportunity.
The participants considered the most important preconditions for realizing the vision to be strengthening cooperation, recognizing and utilizing the uniqueness of Kemijärvi, and understanding the potential of nature tourism and local products. It was also recognized that changes are needed in municipal politics and decision-making, which were perceived as very slow and undemocratic.
From human livelihoods to multispecies livelihoods
In her introduction to the webinar held at Pyhätunturi, postdoctoral researcher Veera Kinnunen presented the concept of elonkeino – derived from the Finnish word for livelihood – which she has developed in collaboration with researchers Pieta Savinotko, Anu Valtonen, and Joona Vola. The concept refers to activity in a broad sense as relationships between humans, species, and living and non-living entities, in which the conditions for life are nurtured. Similar thinking was also evident in the citizen workshop, which emphasized the importance of cooperation and activity between people and between people and nature.
In her presentation, Sanna Hast highlighted the challenges of coordinating reindeer herding and other land use and the new practices associated with them. In order to achieve the many parallel objectives set for northern forests, efforts to reconcile the activities related to forestry, biodiversity objectives, and sustainable reindeer herding will change forestry and reindeer herding practices as we know them. By taking the practices of different livelihoods as a starting point for this process, it is possible to assess whether the use of the same forest land by different livelihoods is possible and under what conditions.
In his presentation, Jarno Valkonen, professor at the University of Lapland, reflected on the sustainability transformation through the concepts of living and non-living nature. According to Valkonen, climate change cannot be understood in the same way as a social change in which something changes and something else remains the same. Instead, climate change is a metamorphosis of the world, in which the world is reorganized in new and unpredictable ways. Valkonen believes that the sustainability transformation involves dismantling the old and building the new. Valkonen presented the idea of inanimate nature separate from life, which has been an important component of modern Western worldview and technology. When the idea of freely exploitable inanimate nature is dismantled, we are simultaneously able to build an understanding of living nature that allows us to see the world as a kind of evolving organism. It consists of countless smaller and larger ecosystems, and flows and networks connecting the living and non-living.
In his presentation, Valkonen also reflected on the importance of traditions in constructing living nature. He mentioned that traditions where humans coexist with nature are important factors in constructing the idea of living nature. When traditions of this kind are chosen as part of life politics, the question is not about reviving tradition, i.e. the return of something that has already been declared lost, but about something entirely new. It is about embracing tradition itself as a communal lifestyle choice.
The visions presented at the Kemijärvi citizen workshop emphasized coexisting with nature and embracing traditions related to nature-based livelihoods as a communal lifestyle choice. The key question remains how to reconcile nature-based livelihoods with the needed changes in the forestry and energy industries associated with the green transition.
Moving forward with the Futures Triangle
The second citizen workshop and webinar of the Kestävyysmurroksen marginaalit (’Sustainability transformation from the margins’) project, held in Kemijärvi, discussed the effects of the sustainability transformation on nature-based livelihoods and people directly dependent on nature in Lapland. The theme of the citizen workshop was the future of nature-based livelihoods and nature use in Kemijärvi. The day after the citizen workshop, a webinar was held to report on the workshop and delve deeper into questions related to the sustainability transformation and nature cultures.
Entrepreneurs in the nature sector, other nature users, and nature conservationists were invited to participate in the Kemijärvi workshop. Prior to the citizen workshop, information on the local context was gathered by interviewing local government officials and six local nature entrepreneurs who had registered for the workshop. The workshop, which was attended by five entrepreneurs in the nature sector, utilized the Futures Triangle developed by futurist Sohail Inayatullah, which is particularly well suited for identifying factors that will influence the future of the selected theme.
ANNA MUSTONEN & TIMO KUUSIOLA
Header photo: Heidi Nummi
• The Argumenta Grant, funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
• The project involves researchers from the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Lapland, Tampere University, the Finnish Environment Institute, and think tanks PlanWe and Creatura.
• The aim is to increase participation of citizens who are geographically or socially marginalized, as well as facilitate interaction between different levels of society in the debate on sustainability.
• The project includes workshops for citizens and researchers, seminars, and communications.
• Read more about the project
Anna Mustonen
Anna Mustonen is a doctoral researcher in environmental politics at the University of Eastern Finland’s Department of Geographical and Historical Studies. Anna is also a project manager of the Kestävyysmurroksen marginaalit (’Sustainability transformation from the margins’) project.
TIMO KUUSIOLA
Timo Kuusiola is a Master of Science in Recycling Technology and works at the University of Eastern Finland as deputy coordinator and workshop facilitator in the Kestävyysmurroksen marginaalit (’Sustainability transformation from the margins’) project.
Perspectives on the social inequality of sustainability transformation
Towards coexistence between nature and humans in Kemijärvi
Perspektiv på hållbarhetstransformationens sociala ojämlikhet