Chairs:
Ida Wallin, Chair of Forest and Environmental policy, University of Freiburg
Jens Friis Lund, Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO), University of Copenhagen
TA: Louisa
Abstract
Despite participatory efforts and visions of more democratic and sustainable forestry, local communities and knowledge holders continue to be over-looked in forest-related decision-making. Without scrutinizing the ethical and political aspects of knowledge claims by technical branches in society, participatory efforts are going to repeat previous mistakes and fail to accomplish meaningful interaction between actors. In order to find out how to have meaningful participation and interaction between actors we thus first need to critically evaluate the current forestry knowledge practices. In this panel discussion, we focus on knowledge practices as key in individuals’ and societies’ interactions with forests, and in the reproduction and naturalization of authority within forestry. We examine historical and current knowledge practices and discuss pathways towards open and pluralistic knowledge practices in forestry.