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 ideaof a “green transition”. A policy that include fossil free steel production, increased mining, energy production andforestry and cause significant impact on Sámi lands. This type of ‘solution’ to certain societal problems wouldcause negative impacts on other values, for example Sámi reindeer herding that is struggling with the impacts ofprevious encroachments and climate change.

Departing from the increasing land use conflicts on Sámi lands that are activated in discourses of sustainabledevelopment the aim of the project is to reveal conflicts and trade-offs, and to identify leverage points forchallenging 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 arelegitimized and what futures they hold. The objective of the project is to contribute with knowledge that can makethe green transition also become fair and reduce already existing inequalities. By critically assessing andexplaining the differences in how discourses have emerged, been legitimized, and challenged we contribute toshed new light on assumptions of sustainable development that have been taken for granted.