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Accepted Paper:
Skolt Sami rules and environmental sustainability
Panu Itkonen
(University of Lapland)
Paper short abstract:
The presentation seeks ways from the Skolt Sami cultural heritage to a sustainable relationship with nature. The importance of rules and regulation emerges. The presentation considers how cultural traditions and administrative practices should be transformed to support sustainability.
Paper long abstract:
The industrial-economic model has made it possible to exploit natural resources quite freely. In Inari municipality northern Finland, such activities have often been seen as part of large-scale activities and the environmental threats they pose. Less attention has been paid to the challenges of environmental sustainability in traditional and other nature-related activities of local people. In Lapland's marketing, the natural environment is defined as, for example, “Wild North”. This definition has aroused criticism among locals because it includes a dimension of unregulated freedom in order to lure visitors. However, the trend towards freedom in relation to nature has also been largely embraced by local people. Biological studies have attempted to define conditions for sustainability. However, in the context of socio-cultural research, there has been less attempts to define sustainable practices, i.e. what environmental sustainability means, for example, in traditional nature-linked livelihoods. This presentation highlights factors that have made it difficult to define sustainable practices. The presentation seeks new ways to maintain a sustainable relationship with nature by examining old and contemporary features of Skolt Sami cultural heritage. The central role of rules and regulation in the use of natural resources emerges. The cultural tradition does not support unrestricted freedom in the relationship with nature. The tightening of fishing rules in Upper Lapland in 2016 to protect fish stocks, in turn, highlighted how the emphasis of local people differed from the views of officials. The presentation considers how cultural traditions and administrative practices should be transformed to support sustainability.