Overstocking or Encroachments? Interrogating the political ecology of land use conflicts on Sámi lands.

Sustainable development has become a mainstream principle in environmental governance. Yet, there are many, often opposing, ideas of what sustainable development means. Such opposing views are activated within the idea of a “green transition”.

A policy that include fossil free steel production, increased mining, energy production and forestry and cause significant impact on Sámi lands.

This type of ‘solution’ to certain societal problems would cause negative impacts on other values, for example Sámi reindeer herding that is struggling with the impacts of previous encroachments and climate change.Departing from the increasing land use conflicts on Sámi lands that are activated in discourses of sustainable development the aim of the project is to reveal conflicts and trade-offs, and to identify leverage points for challenging dominant policy discourses.

Using political ecology and competing discourses on ‘overstocking’ and ‘encroachments’ we investigate how ideas and actors are interconnected over time, how knowledge claims are legitimized and what futures they hold.

The objective of the project is to contribute with knowledge that can make the green transition also become fair and reduce already existing inequalities.

By critically assessing and explaining the differences in how discourses have emerged, been legitimized, and challenged we contribute to shed new light on assumptions of sustainable development that have been taken for granted.