Person, Place, and Knowledge in the Conservation of the Saimaa Ringed Seal

Abstract

There is a strong connection between people's knowledge of nature and their relationship to place. Local environmental knowledge is multifaceted and influenced by changing social and economic circumstances that affect the way people come to know and relate to nature. A case study from Finland demonstrates how locality, personhood, and environmental perceptions cohere to challenge conservation practices. In this instance, local people fully uphold the conservationists' desire to save a threatened endemic mammal, the Saimaa ringed seal (Phoca hispida saimensis nordq), from extinction. However, local people are far less enthusiastic about the conservationists' chosen means for achieving conservation of the seal. They fail to engage with many aspects of the conservation program because its design and implementation fail to acknowledge local people's collective and personal experiences of place. The case study demonstrates the need for conservation programs to take seriously local people's “place-based” observations and theories.