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Paper short abstract:

The Kiiminkijoki river has seen many stages of environmental management, which are tangibly visible in the landscape. I look at the environmental transformations of the river as a socio-ecological interaction between cultural practices, politics, and the materiality of the river.

Paper long abstract:

Throughout history the changing livelihoods of people and varying forms of environmental management can be witnessed as tangible transformations in the landscapes as the legacies of the previous historical practices carry their material consequences in the environment. In these politically contested transformations that result from different rationales of environmental governance and natural resource utilization, water is a central element.

The Kiiminkijoki river which flows to the Baltic Sea on the northern edge of Oulu region has seen many of these concretely visible transformations. The drying of the lakes for agriculture in the 19th century were followed by the opening of the rapids for timber floating after the second world war. Later, during the latter part of the 20th century the tilling of the peatlands for industrial forestry and the peat production for energy caused changes in the river system which have dramatically altered the ways the waters can be used for other purposes such as fishing and recreation. Most importantly the naturally occurring Baltic salmon population vanished by the end of century.

Nowadays the industrial management of the natural environment is accompanied by the restoration of the water systems and the river basin area with an aim to support the traditional ways of being along the river. The rationales behind managing the environment are consequently highly politically contested. In this paper I look at the environmental change of Kiiminkijoki river basin area as a process in which cultural practices and politically motivated ambitions intersect with the materiality of the river.