Adaptive Capacity and Adaptation in Swedish Multi-Use Boreal Forests: Sites of Interaction Between Different Land Uses

Abstract

Governance and conflict resolution in multi-use forests require the integration of stakeholders and decision-makers in multiple sectors: forestry, reindeer husbandry, conservation, tourism and local use. To a large extent, these sectors are characterised by divergent interests and considerable power discrepancies. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews in Gällivare, a municipality in northernmost Sweden, this paper discusses adaptive capacity with regard to interaction between sectors. The chapter examines impacts of the different land uses on each other, identifies adaptation options, and describes existing interaction measures. The chapter concludes that adaptive capacity at the local level is constrained by a number of factors, one example being the institutionalised character of reindeer herding–forestry relations that may limit adaptation at the local level.