The aim of this paper is to offer a critical policy analysis of the use of the Reindeer Husbandry Plan (Renbruksplan) in Sweden, and specifically evaluate its potential for addressing land use disputes between Indigenous reindeer herding communities and large-scale forestry.
Stack of freshly cut tree logs in a forest.
Photo: mrs / Moment / Getty
A widespread governance response to land use conflict is to seek improved communication through the employment of dialogue-based instruments. In this paper, the authors interrogate the guiding presupposition that conflict can be planned away through a case study on the Reindeer Husbandry Plan (Renbruksplan), a tool used to address land use conflicts between industrial forestry and Indigenous Sámi reindeer herding. Drawing on critical policy analysis and environmental justice frameworks, this article analyses the problematizations, silences and effects emerging from the tool’s use in forestry planning and land use decisions.
The findings reveal that, operating in its current institutional and legal context, the tool offers limited improvements in procedural justice, exacerbates unequal distribution of burdens and benefits in terms of who gets to use forest resources, privileging a forestry-centered representation of the land use conflict. Consequently, without institutional reform, the tool is likely to perpetuate conflicts and continue to reproduce the injustices embedded in Swedish forest and land use governance.
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Journal article / Official reports of Swedish wildfire impacts are compared with Sámi reindeer herders' own perception and navigation of the events.
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