Newsletter 2/2011 1/9

Are policies of regional restructuring in adequate? Lessons from Kaskö – in a Norwegian comparison ment (more than one year without work) started By Åge Mariussen to grow almost exponentially, to more than 30 % of unemployment in 1994. Lots of people who lost Will Finland experience a crisis in the Eurozone? their jobs in 1990 did not succeed in finding a new If so, we have to take a new look at policies for job. Instead, they went from short term to long term industrial restructuring. unemployment.

Finland and Norway have several small cities and This impact of the 1990 crisis had three main expla- geographically isolated industrial towns which de- nations. First, in terms of skills, layoffs came from pend upon one or a few industries, often based on industrial sectors which had not provided their em- natural resource extraction. However, unlike Fin- ployees with the qualifications they needed in or- land, Norway has been working with the develop- der to get jobs in the expanding services and ICT ment problems of these localities, seen as ”omstill- industries. Secondly, there was the spatial compo- ing”, since 1982. During the last years of economic nent. Growth came in larger citites, primarely with turbulence, these experiences have been summa- universities which could support NOKIA invest- rised in a Norwegian law on “omstilling”. The law ments and employ bright young people. Less mo- was approved by the Parliament in Oslo in 2009. bile seniors left in the wrong regions (and wrong If you fail to do ”omstilling” properly, the regional sectors) could not compete. Third, because the ICT- labor market is likely to generate long-term unem- driven growth was so strong, the focus of national ployment, which tend to reduce the level of em- and regional policy making at the time was how to ployment in the population. In this respect, Finland manage growth in the expanding clusters, not to is still carrying the burden of the 1990 crisis. solve problems in areas left behind.

Impacts of the 1990s crisis in Finland today? In the problem areas, the dynamic was one-way. Once you go into long term unemployment, it gets The Finnish economy went through a deep reces- harder and harder to go back into work. Long term sion in the early 1990s. From 1990 to 1993 unem- unemployment figures get stuck at a high level. If ployment increased from below 5 to almost 20. we look inside the not-so-bad 2010 unemployment Then from 1994, as the ICT industry started to grow, figure of 8,5 %, we find that Finland in 2010 had a unemployment started to fall. When the ICT indus- share of 23,6 % long term (more than one year) un- try got into trouble in 2001, other sectors, such as employed. Long term unemployment in Finland in mechanical and energy industries, boomed. Today, 2010 corresponds to 2 % of the workforce. Similar Vasa with its electrotechnical and mechanical in- figures in Norway is 0,035 % and in Sweden 0,14 dustry cluster has replaced the ICT cluster of Oulu %. So what happens if you cannot get out of long as the hegemonic regional success story. In 2010 term unemployment? After a while, you stop look- unemployment in Finland and Sweden was roughly ing for new work. Then, you are no longer regarded similar, 8.5 % of the workforce. Not as good as in as a part of the labor market. This means that a high 1990, but after all similar to well-performing Swe- level of long-term unemployment indicates that the den. Perhaps not so bad, then? level of employment in the population has a down- word preassure. The working population in Finland However, what these figures do not tell is that the 2010 was 68,3 % of the population between 16 and 1990 disaster had a deeper impact. In 1990, the 64. It is somewhat higher than Germany, with 66,1 Finnish share of long-term unemployed of the un- %. But the German economy is carrying the burden employed was just above 2 %. In other words, very of reintegration between East and West, which was low. But from 1992 to 1994 long term unemploy- a formidable challenge in terms of structural unem- Newsletter 2/2011 2/9

ployment. Finnish employment is 7,8 % lower than This was published in June. Since then, the EURO Norway (75,4 %) and 4,4 % lower than Sweden (72,2 crisis has gone from bad to worse. This could lead %). The case in point is the age group which were to growth disruptions, also in well performing core between 35 and 44 in 1990. They are now between EURO countries, like Germany and Finland. Would 55 and 64 years. Here, only 56,3 % of the Finns are we like to see another 1990 in, say 2012, which working in 2010. This is 14,3 % lower than in Swe- leads to another round of long-term structural un- den and 12,3 % lower than in Norway. This is the employment followed by low labor market partici- long-term impact of the 1990 crisis we experience pation, say in the 2020s and 2030s? If not, how can today. these potential long-term damages to the Finnish economy be avoided? Given the current framework Keeping lots of people, including seniors above 55 of national economic policy defined by the EZ sta- outside the labor market simply is very expensive to tus, it is quite obvious that crisis management can- the balance sheet of the national economy. This is not rely on expensive Keynesian counter-cyclical illustrated through a comparison with other OECD experiments. It is equally obvious that structural countries in 2010. The OECD employment average transformations in the economy simply have to be (64,6 %) was lower than Finland (68,3 %). But this allowed to take place, despite the local pains they OECD average was veigted down by countries like may cause. This means that efficient solutions have Turkey (46,3 %), Hungary (55,4 %), Italy (56,9 %), to be sought at the regional level, where the struc- Chile (59,3 %) and Greece (59,4 %). These countries tural labor market problems of long term unem- do not have very impressive economic performanc- ployment and labor market exit are created in the es. On the other end of the scale, countries with first place. The question is: do we have the right high employment rates, we find well performing rules of the games of local and regional restructur- economies like Switzerland (84,6 %), Iceland (80,6 ing, including institutional arrangement to do this %), Japan (80,0 %) and the Netherlands (80,0 %). If in a smart way in Finland? you want to have a competitive and well perform- ing national economy, you can not just look at un- The Kaskö case employment, you have to take the employment rate into consideration. The employment rate, typi- In this respect, a comparison between the case of cally, is influenced by long-term processes, which Kaskö and the Norwegian approach to local and for all practical purposes can not be reversed on regional industrial restructuring, or “omstilling”, is an ex post basis. They have to be anticipated and interesting. Kaskö is a small municipality located in confronted ex post, before the damage is done. The the region of Southern with no large mechanisms which create these bad figures play city urban clusters driving growth. Until recently, out at the regional level. This is where they must be the town was dominated by a Metsä-Botnia pulp stopped. factory which started its operations in 1977, with 400 employees in a town with 1 400 inhabitants. The 1990s – again? The analysis made by Nordberg and Eklund came to the following conclusions: Is Finland today going in the direction of the 1990s? According to the Economic Outlook of the Bank of 1. The municipality and the union was taken by Finland (Bank of Finland, 3, June 2011, page 22) surprise. The closure of the mill came suddenly in 2010, without advance warning to the employees “A positive thing is that at least thus far there have or the municipality. In the beginning, the corporate been no signs of the labor market mismatches that owner seemed to be interested in setting up an in- typically result from a protracted weak employment dustrial park in the area owned by the factory. These situation.” assumptions formed the point of departure for the Newsletter 2/2011 3/9

first restructuring project. These plans were later re- are specially high in the 50 years and older group, vised by the owner. Access to the area, the buildings and they are also felt in the 25–49 year group. and equipment were closed, and the machinery was sold to a foreign buyer. The Norwegian law on ”omstilling” is based on posi- tive experiences with Norwegian resturcturing pro- 2. Support and policies to create new jobs was cesses in several small industrial towns. Important short term. The municipality obtained ERDF sup- components of these policies are: port for restructuring, which was used for develop- ment projects, aiming at new job creation. These 1. Early warning to regional authorities. Com- projects focused on broad based search to attract panies planning closures are committed by the external firms with reference to local assets, such as law to inform regional authorities in advance. well-developed harbor facilities combined with rail- 2. Negoriations between unions, company road. These projects are now finalised and further and regional authorities. Regional authorities work is not undertaken. A few firms has been set up are obliged to go into negotiations with the with support from these projects. company and the unions, in order to explore opportunities for work after the closure. 3. Impacts on employment. The major impacts 3. Long-term work on restructuring. In several seems to be an increase in unemployment, from 4 % small industrial towns and cities, there is a con- in 2007 to 17,6 % in 2011. Unemployment impacts tinous work to support ”omstilling”.

Learning wind power planning from Sweden? By Johanna Liljenfeldt The general idea of the research undertaken more and more wind power projects are being pro- within the framework of the Botnia Atlantica posed there is reason to believe that wind power Institute and the LUBAT project is that develop- developments soon will be taking off here as well. ment strategies in one region can be improved by studying the results of development strate- The seminar gies in other regions. The speakers at the seminar were comprised by On the 22nd of November the Botnia Atlantica Insti- both Swedish and Finnish, as well as public and tute hosted a learning seminar on the issue of wind private party, representatives: Åsa Elmqvist (the power in with this exact thought in mind. The Swedish Environmental Agency), Jan Wikström (Re- seminar, which was entitled “Local mobilization gional Council of Ostrobothnia), Sebastian Johan- to solve global problems: Learning wind power sen (Fortum) and Fredrik Lindahl (Slitevind AB and planning from Sweden?”, aimed to explore if there Svensk Vindkraftförening). Acting as commentators is anything from Swedish wind power planning ac- for the event were Mats Brandt (Malax municipality) tivities that can be learned and applied to a Finnish and two of LUBAT’s (Lärande om utveckling inom context. The background for the setup of the semi- Botnia-Atlantica -project) researcher – Örjan Pet- nar is that Sweden has had a fast and extensive ex- tersson (Umeå University) and Johanna Liljenfeldt pansion of wind power during the last five to ten (Umeå University). Furthermore, Åge Mariussen, years. In comparison the development in Finland who chaired the event, divided the word between (and Norway) has so far been rather modest, but as sixty eager seminar participants. 4/9 Newsletter 2/2011

The need for information ther research in a number of areas, for example con- cerning birds, the sea floor, economic consequenc- A problem that surfaced in Sweden when wind es and Nature 2000 -areas. power development took off was that the process to plan and get permission to build wind turbines Wikström also described how national wind power took a lot of time. One of the reasons stated for this goals in Finland have been transformed into con- was that public officers in Sweden were unsure of crete land-use plans at the regional level. In these how to evaluate the permission applications which plans suitable land areas for wind power exploita- prolonged the process. As a remedy to this problem tion are appointed on the basis of a so called “No- the Swedish government started a research pro- analysis”. This method entails identifying, ranking gram called Vindval which has the aim to compile and excluding areas according to their suitability the needed information, evaluate it and then com- for wind power, taking account for issues such as municate it as easily as possible to both public offic- wind supply, electricity grid and nature concerns. ers and to wind power developers. Using this method, 28 areas have been found in Os- trobothnia that are deemed appropriate for wind According to the presenter Åsa Elmqvist, who is power development. working on the Vindval research project, the aim has not been to produce new material, but to get A comparison here can be done with how the Swed- a sense of what has already been written and then ish regional agencies identified places that are “of put it together in a way that is more easily acces- national interest” (riksintresse) from a wind power sible. The focus areas for Vindval’s activities have perspective. The way that this was supposed to be been what the possible consequences of wind done was by judging only the natural preconditions power could be on the human as well as the natural for wind power in different areas in the country. environment. However, in practice in many regions it was done in a similar way as in Finland – by ruling out areas Elmqvist thinks that the results that have been pre- where wind power could come in conflict with oth- sented so far have been eagerly awaited – espe- er land-use interests. This process has gotten some cially when it comes to material concerning birds critique since there are some types of land-use that and bats – but she also mentions that there are at first glance might seem incompatible, but which still some areas that need to be better understood, with proper planning can function well together. An e.g. what the accumulated effect will be if the wind example of this could be that some Nature 2000 -ar- power exploitation continues. eas can fulfill their nature protection purpose even though there are wind turbines in the area (this is Areas suitable for wind power currently being investigated by the Swedish gov- ernment agencies). Information was also something that was empha- sized by Jan Wikström – planning engineer at the The industrial perspective Regional Council of Ostrobothnia. He said that the ministry of the Environment in Finland in the spring The two speakers from the private sector – Sebas- of 2012 was going to publish guidelines for wind tian Johansen and Fredrik Lindahl – both represent- power planning. However, at the moment there is a ed companies which are developing wind power lively debate going on concerning these guidelines, projects in Sweden as well as in Finland. In Ostro- such as which noise levels or how big buffer zones bothnia, Johansen said that his company Fortum should be applied for different areas. Furthermore, had been using regional land-use plans to choose Wikström mentioned that there was a need for fur- where to locate wind turbines. The reason for this Newsletter 2/2011 5/9

was that the company expected little resistance municipal manager of Malax municipality, Mats to wind power in these areas since they had gone Brandt. Brandt pointed to the central position of the through a public planning process. However, in ret- municipality in wind turbine siting situations. The rospect it has become evident that just because an municipality decides on different land-use interests, area has been designated for wind power doesn’t it ensures that all its inhabitants will be treated fair mean that there will be an absence of hindrances and equal, and it decides on which political goals or objections and that the permitting process will should be prioritized (e.g. global climate goals or lo- be easy. In fact, it has taken a lot of time and effort cal environmental concerns). to try to get the project approved, so long that Jo- hansen recommends that the processes should be From the experiences gained in Malax through dif- made simpler, more efficient and more predictable ferent wind power schemes, Brandt said that one of if the governments wind power goals are to be met the things that is good to have when dealing with in due time. these issues is a general land-use plan for the mu- nicipality which incorporates areas ready planned Johansen’s statements echo those of wind power for wind power. With such a plan Malax would have developers in Sweden a few years ago (and some been better prepared to handle wind power siting still going on today). Here developers (as well as requests and the municipality would, according to politicians, researchers and public officers) advocat- Brandt, not have had to turn developers away. ed a less difficult and time consuming permitting process which resulted in new permitting rules for A fruitful seminar wind power which diverges from rules governing other similar forms of projects. All in all, the seminar resulted in interesting discus- sions and in many insights into the wind power Lindahl, during his presentation, mentioned two situation in both Sweden and Finland. As there also things that differ between Ostrobothnia/Finland were people present at the seminar with knowledge and West Bothnia/Sweden, which gives wind power of wind power development in other countries, e.g. development different prerequisites in the areas: Norway and Germany, an even wider perspective land ownership and tax collection. Concerning land than the seminar aimed at could be formed con- ownership it seems that the land in Ostrobothnia cerning different solutions in the subject area. is split into smaller pieces and between more land owners than in West Bothnia, which has resulted A concluding remark that can be made is that the in the need for having more people in wind power situation in Finland today in many ways looks the processes in Ostrobothnia compared to West Both- same as the situation in Sweden just before wind nia. This in turn makes the process bigger and more power development really took off. The institutional unpredictable. As concerns the local impact, the framework with information, guidelines, wind maps situation with tax collection is according to Lindahl, and economic mechanisms, is just about ready. Are- however, more favorable in Finland then Sweden. as of interest for wind power have been appointed. This is due to the fact that tax revenues from wind And project developers are well on their way with power in Finland can be collected directly by the lo- preparations for permit applications. The ques- cal government, whereas in Sweden the tax goes to tion is now, of course, will Finland experience the the state. same wind power expansion as Sweden has seen in recent years? And if so, will Finland have learnt Local concerns from Swedish experiences and therefore be better prepared to handle this development? Interesting The last presentation of the day was given by the times lay ahead. Newsletter 2/2011 6/9

Wind mill planning processes in Ostrobotnia By Seija Virkkala

Renewable energy sources like wind energy tween different interest groups and conflicts. and its utilization are local solutions for global problem. Wind mills are crucial for the imple- There are many plans for location of wind mills in mentation of the climate and energy strategy Ostrobotnia but the plans have caused lot of oppo- goal in the EU as well as in Finland. Wind mills sition among the inhabitants and there have been are especially important in Ostrobotnia since big delays in wind mill planning processes. The con- the area has declared itself as a forerunner of flicts and delays should be analyzed thoroughly. new energy. Conflicts might give an impulse for learning, and by analyzing even heavy and hot interest conflicts we The Ostrobothnia Region holds the most significant can get valuable ideas in developing the planning energy technology cluster in the Nordic Countries. and decision making process more smoothly. The cluster includes large actors with world-wide distribution activities, but also small emerging en- Two master thesis on planning process of wind mill terprises. It has about 120 businesses employing parks in Finland have been published in regional some 10 000 people (EnergyVaasa). The wide range studies. Jaana Rantala made a case study on the of construction- and manufacturing work includes planning process of wind mills in island (Kor- world leading products, e.g. diesel engines, elec- sholm municipality) and Jutta Vento a discourse tric motors, power plants, frequency converters as analysis on wind mill planning in Ostrobotnia based well as applications for electricity transmission and on newspaper articles and statements on one case: for the wind power industry. Ostrobothnian enter- Sidlandet wind mill planning process in Malax mu- prises are big actors on all global markets. (Johnson nicipality. 2011) Both studies suggest more careful planning, espe- The regional actors are cooperating in the energy cially consideration of location’s ecological and so- business and supporting energy enterprises and cial features, and deeper involvement of inhabitants innovation activities. Merinova technology centre and other stakeholders in the early phase of wind is also the coordinator of the national energy tech- mill planning. Also the guidance for the projects by nology cluster programme. VASEK Vaasa Region the national level should be consistent enough. Development Company is a regional development and business corporation working in close coopera- The factors promoting wind mill planning in Re- tion with the municipalities, trade and industry, and plot island are for example good wind conditions, schools. Ostrobothnia Chamber of Commerce pro- cleanness of the wind energy, feeding tariff system motes constant development of the circumstances decided by Finnish government in 2010 and the and conditions of trade and industry. The Regional potential positive employment effects especially in Council of Ostrobothnia is a regional development the phase of construction. However, the wind mill authority with tasks of regional development and planning process in Replot seems to be very com- province planning which, in turn, form the basis for plicated. Even if there have been many surveys and protecting regional interests. (EnergyVaasa) an Environmental impact analysis, the future of the project is still uncertain. Following factors have re- Even if Ostrobotnia is an important producer of tarded/prevented the wind mill planning process in energy technology, the wind mill capacity is small Replot island: here. In Finland we have 130 windmills with the ca- pacity of about 200 MW but in Sweden there is ten Firstly, the electricity company began to plan a wind time more wind capacity i.e. more than 2 000 MW mill park in the world heritage area, which diverged It seems that Sweden has got easier consensus be- from the plans of the regional council. However, Newsletter 2/2011 7/9

later the plans have decreased and the wind mill discourse, technical-economical discourse, energy park was planned to be located outside the world political discourse, the discourse of knowledge and heritage area. If the company had in the early stage the way to act discourse. taken more account the world heritage area, the planning process might have gone smoothly. The NIMBY phenomenon is not only negative; the interest conflicts between stakeholders should be Secondly, the planning practices have not been analysed which might give inputs for better plan- standardized enough and the guidance by the re- ning. In Malax municipality, the suitable areas for gional and national authorities has not been con- wind mills have been defined in a general plan sistent enough. Thirdly, the windmills are disturbing which helps also the planning process. Web portal landscape and environment, and the planning pro- of wind power provided by Vaasa Energy institute cess has not managed to take away the risks. Finally, disseminates relevant information for all interested. the negative statement of the regional authorities It is also important to analyse the successful pro- (ELY-center) on the wind mill project in Replot may jects and their success factors. The co-operation delay or even prevent the whole process. and analyzing the good practices for examples in Botnia-Atlantica area will contribute better plan- Jutta Vento analyzed thoroughly the NIMBY (not ning of wind mills, which is needed to achieve the in my backyard) phenomenon in Sidlandet: Many aims of national climate strategy goals as well as the inhabitants have been negative to wind mill plan- regional objectives for being a forerunner in renew- ning project in Sidlandet. However, the opposition able energy sources. against the wind mill park project in Sidlandet can- not be explained only because of NIMBY phenom- Source material: enon and the selfish behavior of the inhabitants, EnergyVaasa 2011. http://www.energyvaasa.fi/ instead Vento points structural and actor relevant en/home_en factors of Environmental Impact analysis process. Johnson, Jerker 2011. Rational Energy Use The planning process has proceeded according to Made in Ostrobothnia. Regional Review Maga- top down approach and according to the model zine, October 2011; 22. http://www.obotnia.fi/ decide-announce-defend (DAD-model) and the en/d-Rational-Energy-Use-Made-in-Ostrobothnia. inhabitants have not been enough involved in the aspx?docID=10242 process. Instead of the DAD-model Vento suggest Rantala, Jaana 2011 Raippaluodon tuulivoima- proceeding more according to the PADA-model puiston suunnitteluprosessi. http://www.tritonia. (plan-announce-decide-announce). Collaborative fi/?d=244&g=abstract&abs=4618 planning, deeper participation of citizens in the Vaasa Energy Institute 2011 Medvind. wind mill planning process, and more communica- http://wind.vei.fi/Dynamic/public/index. tion would increase trust between actors as well as php?cmd=smarty&id=11_lse&PHPSESSID=ff1da8c the legitimacy of the planning process. 8eb66761f2a564262153c15cb Vento, Jutta 2011. Ei Minun takapihalleni! Reto- In the empirical material can be found different rinen diskurssianalyysi Pohjanmaan tuulivoima- ways to argue and speak on wind mills whether suunnittelusta. http://www.tritonia.fi/?d=244 positive, negative or neutral. Both proponents and opponents of wind mills may appeal for responsi- bility, competitiveness and “this is the only option”. The proponents and opponents do speak for eco- logical and social responsibility. The arguments for or against wind mills are based also on economical Newsletter 2/2011 8/9

World Heritage Status Generates Local Involvement By Eivind Brendehaug, Western Norway Research Institute1 Being included on the UNESCO World Heritage by the central government leaving the local popula- list can encourage local stakeholder engage- tion feeling removed and disempowered. ment and is viewed more positively and with greater interest than the traditional nature World heritage status also raises debate concern- reserves. This is a main finding from research on ing the kind of tourism that is desirable for local world heritage sites within Nordic countries. communities, and the volume of tourism the des- ignation attracts. These issues are currently being Studies were carried out on both ‘natural’ heritage discussed in the municipalities of Geirangerfjord sites and ‘mixed’ heritage sites (those of both cultur- and Nærøyfjord in Norway (The Western Norwegian al and natural significance) by a group of research- Fjords Site). Stakeholders directly engaged in the ers from Norwegian University of Science and transfer of tourism industry, experience the popu- Technology/Norwegian Centre of Rural Research, larity of the heritage status as a benefit, while those Åbo Akademi, University of Nordland and Western who seek to develop an alternative or soft tourism, Norway Research Institute. The findings highlighted believe the large volumes of tourists weakens their how local stakeholders perceive the World Heritage profile. Research on world heritage sites outside of Convention as valuing their local culture and ways the Nordic countries has shown that mass tourism of life equally with the environment they are locat- can easily take over and negatively impact on what ed in. Local stakeholders are also of the opinion that was initially set out to be preserved. the World Heritage status places greater emphasis on local land use, than more traditional conserva- The research also brings out lines of conflict across tion designations have done in the past. geographical levels as well as between levels. Large- scale tourism has its supporters, both locally and Traditionally, communities have viewed conserva- nationally. Such a conflict perspective is current in tion designations as reducing local-determination the Lofoten Islands. There the conflict concerns the and as a barrier to utilizing natural resources. The choice of direction for community development world heritage designation however, is perceived which has resulted in powerful interests becoming as supporting the interplay between people and involved; namely the oil industry versus businesses nature and in doing so, presents stakeholders with based on renewable resource use. Local mobiliza- viable opportunities. Good examples of this can be tion and opinion mining is needed to make such found in the Vega Islands in Norway, and Laponia, in conflict visible, a precondition for democratic pro- Norbotten, Sweden. cesses.

The relationship isn’t always harmonious though. Less conflict has been experienced at the World Heritage status can also lead to new lines of con- Heritage designation in the Vega Islands. Here the flict developing between stakeholders; for example status has boosted local optimism and encouraged between the tourist sector, which views heritage immigration to the region. But here also, new con- status as enhancing the attractiveness of a location, flicts have emerged with the traditional fishing in- and local residents and primary industry stakehold- dustry feeling slighted due to the focus on the eider ers who experience the impacts of this increased operation on the remote island in the west of Vega. tourism. Tourists are attracted to the small settle- The UNESCO played a role when the eider operation ments, the cultural landscape and life-styles in the was identified as the unique natural resource use as area, but the local residents producing these collec- a reason for heritage status in Vega. tive goods receive little direct return from the tour- ists companies. Similarly in the Ostrobothnia archi- Preliminary results of research on Nordic World Her- pelago (Kvarken), tourist development is regulated itage Sites shows that in Sweden and Finland the na- Newsletter 2/2011 9/9

tional state takes greater responsibility in the fund- nority interests. It will therefore be interesting to ing of local efforts, while Norway has encouraged follow how these new local governing bodies will local stakeholders to engage in the nomination pro- balance the interests of the future. cesses. It seems that early involvement is important in creating local ties and engagement. This was not In several of the World Heritage Sites, multi-level the case in regards with the World Heritage desig- and multi-actor governance is in use and serves nation in Ostrobothnia, Finland, and now residents to strengthen local involvement and coordination view the designation as just another conservation across sectors and administrative levels. In order to area that restricts rather than enhances local activi- raise awareness regarding who is responsible and ties. the priorities to be set, the academic literature indi- cates it is be important that there are ties to elected In the case of Laponia (Lapland), Sweden, however, representative bodies. an entirely new agency has been developed, with representation from the Sami cities, municipalities Acknowledgement: and Swedish government, but where the Sami have The research program Norwegian environmental the majority. It has proven to be an exciting innova- research towards 2015 at The Research Council of tion of co-management between the different ac- Norway has funded the work with this article. We tors. Also Norway is restructuring it’s management thank for the support. of large protected areas which will affect World Her- itage Sites. Ultimately inter-municipal boards will 1 Contributors to this text are Karoline Daugstad be responsible for the management of the national and Marte Lange Vik at Norwegian University of Sci- parks and the conservation areas, decentralizing ence and Technology/Norwegian Centre for Rural the process further. Research has shown that the Research, Kristina Svels at Åbo Akademi and Allan local administrative bodies, just like governments, Sande at University of Nordland. still face challenges in taking account of local mi-

Botnia-Atlantica Institute´s seminars 2012 - Challenges for small municipalities, september in Bodö - Genus-seminar september–october in Vasa - Windmill seminar in the autumn in Bodö - Theories and methods of transnational learning

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