Send message to Author

Short Abstract

Across the Nordic Arctic, expanding “green” energy projects transform landscapes while revealing the limits of a just transition. For Sámi communities, participation remains tokenistic as their knowledge is sidelined, exposing deep inequities in Nordic wind power governance and decision-making.

Abstract

Across the Nordic Arctic, the rapid expansion of so called green energy projects is reshaping landscapes and livelihoods while testing the meaning of a just green transition. For Indigenous Sámi communities, whose cultural identity and reindeer herding practices depend on reciprocal relations with the land, wind power development introduces new forms of environmental pressure and governance asymmetry. This presentation examines Indigenous participation and knowledge in shaping wind energy transitions across the nordic countries. Drawing on socio legal studies and the examination of court cases, it explores how traditional ecological knowledge informs alternative visions of energy and territory. By highlighting Sámi perspectives on land use, the study reveals how existing planning processes often reproduce colonial patterns of exclusion even within sustainability frameworks. It argues that bridging divides in the Nordic Arctic requires more than procedural inclusion—it demands a rethinking of whose knowledge counts in defining the future of green energy.