Abstract
Finland is not only a country of thousands of lakes, but also one of the most heavily forested countries in Europe. Recently, forest policy and management and biodiversity loss are the most strongly politicized themes in Finland. According to the Finnish Endangered Species Assessment 2019, 76% of forest habitats are endangered. Of the more than 22,000 species, 12% are endangered. The majority of endangered species live primarily in forests. Public debate is ideologically divided and not always based on scientific facts. This paper describes the deep values, ideologies and myths influencing in the background of Finnish forest policy and discussion. I call these background assumptions root causes. The paper is theoretically based on Sohail Inyatullah’s Causal Layered Analysis (CLA), the basic idea of which is that behind visible phenomena there are deeper social, cultural and worldview assumptions that should be made visible in order to change problematic thought and action patterns. Based on an extensive literature review, I have identified seven root causes for the biodiversity loss of forests in Finland. Some of the root causes are related to the prevailing ideal of a (hu)man and human -nature relationship. On the other hand, other root causes are related to our national characteristics and the history of our country. The paper is part of a comprehensive BIODIFUL - Biodiversity Respectful Leadership - research project, funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland.
Presenters
Sari PuustinenSenior Research Fellow, Coordinator of Sustainable Development Studies, Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku, Finland
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Biodiversity loss, Forest policy, Causal layered analysis, Root cause
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