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Accepted Paper:
Paper short abstract:
Climate change, water quality and biodiversity are pressing concerns of today and the current restoration measures aim to correct the historical excesses. We ask whether there is any fundamental difference between the past and present management practices, since both base on engineering solutions.
Paper long abstract:
Climate change, water quality and biodiversity are pressing concerns of today. The urgency of needed corrective actions forces us to think what nature management is as a contemporary practice. The current active restoration and conservation tools aim to correct the historical management measures with detrimental environmental impact. Nevertheless, we ask whether there is any fundamental difference between the past and present environmental engineering practices?
This paper is based on the ‘Co-planning of land use sector climate change mitigation in the Kiiminkijoki river catchment’ project. We examine histories and futures of peatlands management through the Hetekylä village case, along a tributary of Kiiminkijoki river, where heavy environmental management begun in 1850s including for example drying of nearby lakes for fodder production, clearing of riverbeds for timber floating and draining of peatlands for industrial forestry and energy peat production. Today, the area is targeted for peatland restoration efforts with several constructed wetland projects, and riverbed and rapids restoration sites to improve the condition of Kiiminkijoki river. Ultimate local dream is that valued but currently extinct Baltic Salmon will be reintroduced in the river.
We discuss the advantages and shortcomings of active intervention, human agency and human benefits emphasizing management ideologies. We argue that currently popular technofix-methods of environmental restoration do not solve the root causes of environmental degradation but might instead deceive us to ignore the needed transformational change of the whole society and end up in terraforming the whole earth.
Infrastructure Development and the Northern Environment: Past, Present, Future
Session 2 Tuesday 20 August, 2024, -