Including Indigenous Knowledge in Land Use Governance and Decision-Making

Abstract

There is significant recognition at multiple levels of governance on the need for inclusion of Indigenous knowledge systems in collaborative environmental governance and land use decision-making. Considerable challenges in operationalization remain, however, specifically, the how of inclusion. This paper is a synthesis of and a reflection on a thematic series of papers contributing an understanding of the recognition and inclusion of Indigenous knowledges in environmental governance. All the research, in different ways, tackled the incorporation of Indigenous knowledges, values and perspectives into environmental and resource governance. These research papers include: methodological and philosophical approaches used in Australia with an Aboriginal knowledge program designed to facilitate values and decision-making in environmental governance; a study of barriers to recognizing local and Sámi knowledge of the environment in reindeer husbandry; land use governance in wind power development in Sámi areas in Norway; an interview study assessing how the forest industry seeks to integrate Sámi reindeer herding communities’ knowledge in land use planning in Sweden; a study on how Sámi reindeer herders from Northern Sweden are attempting to adapt to changing climate and land use conditions; and an insight into the Indigenous-state-industry dialogue during the (still ongoing) permit process of the so-called Násávárre mining case in Nordland County, Norway. Whilst highly diverse, these cases all point to epistemological, practical and political impediments to effective inclusion, and how these might be addressed.