University of Lapland

About: University of Lapland is a education organization based out in Rovaniemi, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Arctic & Indigenous. The organization has 665 authors who have published 1870 publications receiving 39129 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Rovaniemi & Lapin yliopisto.

Biodiversity Protection in Private Forests: An Analysis of Compliance

Abstract: Compliance is a precondition for a regulatory system to be effective. This article analyses the drivers behind non-compliance and ways of enhancing compliance by empirically investigating the assumptions of compliance theories in the regulation of biodiversity conservation in private forests in Finland. The article shows that institutional factors, such as the characteristics of the decision-making procedure and the roles professional forest organisations, as well as market pressure on large corporate actors, explain to a large extent the identified low level of non-compliance. Knowledge, information and coordination are identified as the most important bottlenecks in the enhancing the implementation of regulation on habitat conservation. We propose the following combination for the promotion of compliance: building on a cooperative strategy by improving the knowledge base and sharing; following a responsive regulation strategy by maintaining existing deterrence tools; and applying true smart regulation through more ambitious institutional arrangements for engagement with new third parties. K E Y W O R D S : Compliance, biodiversity protection, enforcement, regulation, forest regulation 1 . I N T R O D U C T I O N A high degree of compliance is a precondition both for achieving the objective of regulation and for guaranteeing its legitimacy. Although there is a general consensus about the desirability of a high level of compliance with regulatory obligations, views on what explains compliance diverge. Broadly speaking, two main lines of thinking have previously dominated the discussion. Rational theories stress the cost of VC The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com 1 Journal of Environmental Law, 2014, 0, 1–21 doi: 10.1093/jel/eqt029 Article Journal of Environmental Law Advance Access published January 10, 2014 by gest on Jauary 2, 2014 http://jelrdjournals.org/ D ow nladed from complying and the subsequent benefits, in explaining individual level compliance, whereas cooperative theories consider other, more social factors such as commitment or capacity, as the crucial factors explaining compliance or its absence. While both theories have been criticised, recent approaches to compliance combine cooperation and deterrence theories. The approaches of responsive regulation, smart regulation and meta-regulation each bridge the rational and cooperative theories, and pay attention to the context of application. In other words, these theories are potentially more context-sensitive than the rational theories yet more robust than the cooperative theories. The responsive regulation approach suggests that in the first instance of non-compliance, regulators should enforce by persuasion and apply more punitive deterrent responses only if the regulatee continues to breach. Enforcement should both aim to facilitate compliance and work as a threat. Instead of enforcement style, emphasis can be placed on the institutional features of regulation. The smart regulation approach puts much weight on third parties as watchdogs and the meta-regulation approach focuses on improved capacity of the regulatee to carry out the implementation and monitoring of environmental management. Hence, these two approaches highlight the ability of the regulator to enforce by partially relying on other actors than those with direct enforcing roles. This article conceptually and empirically examines theories of compliance in the regulation of biodiversity conservation in private forests. It focuses on the Finnish Forest Act (1093/1996), which requires the preservation of the characteristics of particular valuable habitats in forestry operations. During the 10-year period following the enactment of the Forest Act in 1996, there had been close to 200 identified breaches regarding the habitat regulation aspects of the Forest Act. This figure is very low in comparison to the approximately one million forestry operations conducted in private forests in Finland during the same period. Despite the low level of identified non-compliance, there has been criticism of the functioning of the law as 1 Gary Becker, ‘Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach’ (1968) 76 J Polit Econ 169; Sidney Shapiro and Randy Rabinowitz, ‘Punishment Versus Cooperation in Regulatory Enforcement: A Case Study of OSHA’ (1997) 49 Admin L Rev 713, K Kuperan Viswanathan and Jon G Sutinen, ‘Blue Water Crime: Deterrence, Legitimacy and Compliance in Fisheries’ (1998) 32 L Soc Rev 309; Durwood Zaelke and Thomas Higdon, ‘The Role of Compliance in the Rule of Law, Good Governance and Sustainable Development’ (2006) 3 JEEPL 376. 2 Ian Ayres and John Braithwaite, Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate (OUP 1992) 158–62. 3 Neil Gunningham, ‘Enforcing Environmental Regulation’ (2011) 23 JEL 191 and Neil Gunningham, ‘Strategizing Compliance and Enforcement: Responsive Regulation and Beyond’ in Christine Parker and Vibeke Lehmann Nielsen (eds), Explaining Compliance – Business Responses to Regulation (Edward Elgar 2011) 199–221. Enforcement and Compliance strategies and their combinations have also been analysed in an environmental regulation context in several other studies. Eg Raymond Burby and Robert Paterson, ‘Improving Compliance with State Environmental Regulations’ (1993) 12 J Policy Anal Manage 753; Søren Winter and Peter May, ‘Regulatory Enforcement and Compliance: Examining Danish AgroEnvironmental Policy’ (1999) 18 J Policy Anal Manag 625; Carolyn Abbot, ‘The Regulatory Enforcement of Pollution Control Laws: The Australian Experience’ (2005) 17 JEL 161; Carolyn Abbot, Enforcing Pollution Control Regulation: Strengthening Sanctions and Improving Deterrence (Hart Publishing 2009). 4 The Forest Act is applied both in public and private forests and it defines sustainable timber production and biodiversity conservation as parallel objectives. 2 Biodiversity Protection in Private Forests by gest on Jauary 2, 2014 http://jelrdjournals.org/ D ow nladed from well as the legal and ecological consequences of its enforcement. Our aim is to understand the implementation of the regulatory obligations relating to habitat conservation in these forests and identify possible means for improving the enforcement strategy in this area. The central questions that this article addresses are as follows: (1) what are the factors explaining compliance and non-compliance with the regulatory obligations in relation to the Forest Act in Finland, and (2) how can compliance in this area be advanced? The questions are investigated by analysing the official documentation of the violations of the Forest Act and interviews with representatives of relevant stakeholders. Utilising these two datasets allow a combining of the analysis of the formal enforcement system with its implementation that is embedded in the institutional and socio-economic context. The empirical analysis is anchored in an overview of the theoretical approaches to compliance and enforcement, and an analysis of the current regulatory context in Finland. To familiarise the reader with the context and the roles of different actors in the implementation of the Forest Act, we describe the key characteristics of the forest industry, the stakeholders and nature conservation regulation in Finland in the following section of the article. In the third section, we outline the theoretical viewpoints explaining regulatory compliance and non-compliance and discuss their relevance to our study. Drawing on the theories, we close the section by deriving detailed questions for the empirical analysis. In the fourth section, we describe our empirical analyses and present the results. In the fifth section, we discuss the explanations for compliance and non-compliance identified in our empirical analysis, and critically reflect on its contradictions and uncertainties. Finally, we draw conclusions for an appropriate compliance strategy for forest biodiversity regulation. 2 . I N D U S T R Y , S T A K E H O L D E R S A N D R E G U L A T I O N 2.1 Forestry and Forest Owners Forestry and the forest industry play a significant role in the national economy and its structure in Finland. Forestry land covers almost 86% of the country’s land area, and forestry and the forest industry combined account for almost 5% of Finland’s GDP, employing almost 3% of the total labour force. Covering such a large area, forests host a significant amount of Finland’s biodiversity and are also the primary habitat for 43% of the threatened species identified in Finland. The greatest threat to these species is forestry. 5 Tero Laakso, Tanja Leppänen and Tapio Määttä, Metsärikollisuus empiirisen oikeustutkimuksen kohteena ‘Forest Criminality as an Object of Empirical Legal Research’ [2003] Defensor Legis; 647; Juha Pykälä, ‘Implementation of Forest Act Habitats in Finland: Does it Protect the Right Habitats for Threatened Species?’ (2007) 242 Forest Ecol Manage 281. 6 Esa Ylitalo (ed), Finnish Statistical Yearbook of Forestry 2011 (Metsäntutkimuslaitos (Finnish Forest Research Institute) 2011) 470. 7 Pertti Rassi and others (eds), Suomen lajien uhanalaisuus 2000 (Endangeredness of species in Finland, 2000). (Ympäristöministeriö and Suomen ympäristökeskus (Ministry of the Environment and Finnish Environment Institute) 2001). 8 Ari-Pekka Auvinen and others (eds), Evaluation of the Finnish National Biodiversity Action Plan 1997–2005 (Finnish Environment Institute 2007). Biodiversity Protection in Private Forests 3 by gest on Jauary 2, 2014 http://jelrdjournals.org/ D ow nladed from About 60% of forest land (growth/ha/a> 1 m) in Finland is owned by private individuals. The average size of a forest holding is about 30 hectares. In the past, most forest owners were farmers, while nowadays the largest group is pensioners and only one-fifth are farmers. About 80% of forest owners place some ec

Who is Indigenous? Construction of 'Indigenousness' in Russian Legislation

Abstract: The aim of this article is to identify the unique Russian conceptualisation of indigenousness and its origin in relation to state formation. First, I focus on the variety of the internationally used legal vocabulary in the Russian context. To be familiar with the understanding of 'indigenousness' in Russia also means to be familiar with its history: every modern legal, political or social interpretation of the notion of 'indigenous' in Russia refers to it. I explore the question 'What does it mean to define a people as "indigenous" inhabitants of the land' from historical, economic, social, and cultural perspectives, which preconditioned and have fostered the contradictory nature of the 'indigenousness' discourse in contemporary Russia. In doing so, I focus on the state approach in the Russian empire and the Soviet Union, determining an indigenous population as a special legal category. I then analyse how different kinds of indigenousness were produced and why some communities became 'indigenous', while others did not. Tracing the on-going construction of indigenousness and associated discourses in Russia, I introduce the legal definition of indigenous people, analysing two main criteria which differ in Russia from international understanding: the criterion of ethnicity and the criterion of population numbers. In order to understand why of the 26 recognised indigenous peoples in the USSR became 45 in the Russian Federation, I analyse the contested meaning of indigenousness taking into account geographical, demographic, cultural aspects and political circumstances. I argue that in the current situation there are strong reasons in Russian legislation that render the adoption of international legislation impossible, as we see on the example of the ILO convention 169 or the draft UN Declaration on indigenous rights.

Reforming the Arctic Council Against Increasingly Climate Change Challenges in the North

Abstract: The Arctic states established the Arctic Council aiming to promote environmental protection and sustainable development in the Arctic. However, climate change occurring in the region seriously affects both of these objectives. The Council has incorporated the climate change issue within its main agenda and produces substantial climate change science, and supplies valuable information to the policy-makers and general public in the region. However, the Council does not seem entirely successful in addressing climate change challenges in the region. As a soft-law body, the Council cannot create legally binding obligations under international law could be seen as a disadvantage with respect to its ability on one hand. While soft law character helps the Council in avoiding strict formalities articulated in international law, also allows the participation of non-state actors at policy-making level in resolving regional problems along with states, on the other hand. This paper suggests a few recommendations for the Arctic Council so that it may function better in the field of climate change.

Design for Care in the Peripheries: Arts-based research as an empowering process with communities

Abstract: Arts-based research (ABR), its potential for participation and collaboration, can create insights and understanding of complex societal structures. It can also be used as an approach to find mindful solutions with peripheral communities. The paper argues that ABR, supported by practical collaborative processes, can offer suitable approaches to design for care by including local stakeholders in community-led development processes. This paper presents a Life Story Mandala tool that enables researchers and art and design practitioners to manage complex societal development processes in a globalised world (Bonsiepe 2006). The tool was developed during two global research cycles in South Australia and Finnish Lapland. The goal was to contribute to the development of fair and equal possibilities in everyday life through self-expression. The paper illustrates the practical implementation of a theoretical framework to analyse two case studies in which ABR was employed as an approach to design for care in the peripheries.

Stable isotopes in Sphagnum fuscum peat as late-Holocene climate proxies in northeastern European Russia

Abstract: The environment of the northern taiga to tundra transition is highly sensitive to climate fluctuations. In this study from northeastern European Russia, stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios (δ13 ...