How Traditional Knowledge Comes to Matter in Atlantic Salmon Governance in Norway and Finland

Camilla Brattland,Tero Mustonen

doi:10.14430/arctic4751

Abstract

The article compares different models for knowledge production, all of which include traditional knowledge, as part of Norwegian and Finnish Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) research and management projects. Our hope is to contribute constructively to more socially robust knowledge production in Arctic environmental governance. Through investigating how traditional knowledge comes to matter at local, regional (national), and international levels in different Atlantic salmon research and governance projects in Norway and Finland, we examine the social robustness of different approaches to knowledge co-production. In general, the projects that seem to fulfill Arctic expectations of traditional knowledge co-production with science (projects with high legitimacy) seem to have the least impact on policy, and vice versa. We argue that expectations at the international policy level towards traditional knowledge integration with science are at times unrealistically high and hard to meet at local levels and in national policy contexts. We therefore argue for rethinking how a legitimate and policy-relevant knowledge co-production process should be conducted. Arctic policy levels, Norwegian and Finnish environmental authorities, and salmon conservation science could fruitfully draw lessons from the Näätämö co-management project, which is already referred to as an example of best practice in Arctic environmental governance. To achieve social robustness, projects need to balance scientific credibility with legitimacy among local and Indigenous rights holders. This balance might entail giving up on expectations of integrating traditional ecological knowledge with science and embracing the undefined spaces within Arctic and Indigenous knowledge production.

Highlights

In the Indigenous Arctic context and beyond, the principle of including traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in the knowledge basis for environmental management is gaining increasing recognition
For the purposes of this article, in the context of politicization and critique of Fennoscandian salmon governance, we find it important to broaden the scope of inquiry to get beyond immediate political concerns and perhaps arrive at new insights from other cases, successful or not, in which TEK plays a role in salmon management
In this article we have reviewed Atlantic salmon governance in Finland and in Norway, and how international policies of traditional Indigenous knowledge manifest themselves but are diverted once they reach the national and local context

Summary

Introduction

In the Indigenous Arctic context and beyond, the principle of including traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in the knowledge basis for environmental management is gaining increasing recognition. One example is in the Inuvialuit Home Settlement Area, Northwest Territories, Canada, where knowledge co-production with science and TEK is a central part of the arrangement (see e.g., Johnson et al, 2015). Another example, which is analyzed in more detail in this article, is the co-management arrangement for the river called Näätämo in Finnish (Neiden in Norwegian, and Njauddâm in Sámi), which includes the Skolt Sámi as active partners and knowledge producers (Arctic Council, 2013; Mustonen and Feodoroff, 2013; Mustonen and Mustonen 2016; Carson and Peterson, 2016). The legitimacy with which knowledge production is carried out in practice, what different actors mean by including TEK in the knowledge basis for management, and its implementation in national and local management, can differ greatly between projects, and between national and local contexts

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