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The Social License to Operate (SLO) concept is significant precisely because it is bringing social issues and local communities to the forefront of the mining discourse. Although the concept of SLO has taken root in Lapland, and there are success stories of its implementation, challenges to gaining and maintaining it still remain. For example, to gain SLO, when speaking about community acceptance, the “community” must be clearly defined, as there may be heterogeneous groups claiming to be “locals,” such as out-migrated descendants or summer-cottage owners. Historical experience poses another challenge as residents remember their inability to affect the outcome of large-scale public works projects that exploited natural resources after the Second World War. That history carries over into present situations when new mining projects are proposed. But, challenges also provide opportunities for learning and for new solutions, and the good practices espoused by the mining companies reveal an adaptive attitude and a responsiveness to local community concerns.

The article addresses the problems of defining an indigenous people by deconstructing the Sámi debate in Finland, which has escalated with the government’s commitment to ratify ILO Convention No. 169. We argue that the ethnopolitical conflict engendered by this commitment is a consequence of groupism, by which, following Rogers Brubaker, we mean the tendency to take discrete groups as chief protagonists of social conflicts, the tendency to treat ethnic groups, nations and races as substantial entities and the tendency to reify such groups as if they were unitary collective actors. The aim of the article is to deconstruct groupist thinking related to indigenous rights by analytically separating the concepts of group and category. This allows us to deconstruct the ethnicised conflict and analyse what kinds of political, social and cultural aspects are involved in it. We conclude that indigeneity is not an ethnocultural, objectively existing fact, but rather a frame of political requirements.

Finland became the Chair of the Arctic Council in May of 2017. It has now passed the halfway point in its leadership term with its program of “Exploring Common Solutions” to Arctic needs. This chapter focuses its attention on how and why the specific elements of this thematic program were chosen and the progress that the Finnish Chairmanship has made, thus far, in advancing its objectives. The specific sponsored initiatives of the program are discussed as a reflection of both Finnish priorities and current institutional efforts. Finland’s leadership goals, methods, and roles are examined within the context of providing the Arctic Council with the necessary direction to achieve its long-term objectives. Consideration is given to the particularly challenging international environment in which the Finnish Chairmanship operates.

This study explores the subjective and objective forces that compromise the employability of immigrants in Finnish Lapland. Employability is perceived as being formed by real and ascribed barriers associated with the status of immigrants, many of whom are unemployed or underemployed, living in a geographically isolated area. The research combines in-depth interviews and a focus group discussion with 30 immigrant job seekers. Study employs Ritzer’s integrative sociological paradigm for shaping dialectical relationships between the individual problems faced by the underemployed immigrant and public issues, i.e. the policies and procedures encompassed in constructing their reality. This assessment proffers an integrative labour market paradigm for understanding of existing and theoretical factors of the objective-subjective factors that cause limitations in the labour market and can enable ‘micro-macro’ interactions and incentivise approaches which can strengthen the labour market topographies in Lapland.

Immigrant women and their social adaptation in the north need academic discussion. Immigrant women face continuous challenges in balancing their life in a new environment, and their challenges are as diverse as their backgrounds. Despite this variation in background, the obstacles to integration are remarkably similar across the board. The objective of this research is to find a dialectical relationship between the human ecology of immigrant women with the socio-ecological trend of the Arctic. This study analyses human ecology and social-ecological resilience in the context of the integration of immigrant women in a small Arctic territory, and the objective is to understand the interrelationships between these immigrant women and their surroundings. This study broadens our knowledge on how human actions influence and are influenced by social-ecological system (SES).

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of Earth’s oceans, covering an area of some 14 million square kilometres, of which 2.8 million square kilometres is beyond areas of national jurisdiction – as part of the high seas.

This chapter outlines changes in the Arctic Council, these have been built on the foundations that were laid down already at the beginning of the period of Arctic-wide co-operation, with the initiation of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) in 1991. Most analysis of the Arctic Council starts from the premise that it can develop - and needs to develop, because of the enormous challenges the region faces - and move towards whatever direction is desirable. The activities of the AEPS, which were carried out under the auspices of working groups concerned with conservation, pollution issues, and protection of the Arctic environment, were subsumed by the Arctic Council in 1996. AEPS outlines international environmental protection treaties that apply in the Arctic and specified additional actions to counter the identified environmental threats. It establishes four working groups: Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment, Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.

This article examines moments of opportunity when non-governmental organisations (NGOS), inter-governmental organisations (IGOS), the European Union or nation-states have shown interest in discussing or commissioning studies on a comprehensive Arctic Treaty as a way to govern the region.These ‘windows of opportunity’ moments will be studied chronologically, starting from the end of the Cold War and progressing to the present day. It is also interesting to examine these proposals and their positioning against the current landscape of Arctic and global governance. The article will then examine how the region’s nation-states and other actors have actually opted to meet the challenges of this intensely transforming region, asking whether the states or other authoritative actors have been in favour of a comprehensive Arctic Treaty or if they have preferred to adopt some other solutions in respect to Arctic policy and law. Finally, it is of interest to examine the possible ways forward in governing a region that is undergoing dramatic transformation due to climate change and economic globalisation.

Sustainable mining is an objective as well as a tool for balancing economic, social, and environmental considerations. Each of these three dimensions of mining – and sustainable development – has many components, some of which were chosen for closer study in the SUMILCERE project. While there is no single component that in itself provides a definitive argument for or against sustainable mining, the research reveals some that have proven valuable in the process of balancing the different dimensions of sustainability. In the SUMILCERE project, comparative studies enabled us to identify factors such as the following, which are essential when discussing the balancing in practice of the three dimensions of sustainable mining cited above: the framework and functionality of environmental regulation to protect the environment (environmental sustainability); the competitiveness of the mining industry in light of environmental regulation and its enforcement (economic sustainability); public participation and the opportunities local communities have to influence their surroundings, as well as communities’ acceptance of projects (social sustainability) before and during operations; and the protection of Sámi cultural rights in mining projects (social and cultural sustainability).Although each of the three dimensions of sustainability leaves room for discretion in the weight assigned to it, ecological sustainability, protected by smart environmental regulation and minimum standards, sets essential boundaries that leave no room for compromises. Economic and social sustainability are possible only within these limits. Details of the analyses in the Kolarctic area and accounts of the methods used can be found in the cited SUMILCERE articles. Validerad; 2016; Nivå 1; 20160111 (mariap)

The concept of social license to operate (SLO) is increasingly being used throughout the world to describe a specific aspect of company–community relations in resource-extractive projects, in particular how different actors interact to resolve, or not, the social and economic impacts on local communities and other stakeholders. This article will tease out the main elements of the SLO concept and examine the degree to which both actors (mining companies and communities), verbally and in action, respond toward one another. Based on previous empirical studies of scholars in the field, we have applied an analytical framework of SLO to empirically test whether or not it can provide greater insight into the motivations both behind a community's acceptance of or opposition to a company's project, as well as the extent to which a company is willing to appease the public in order to gain their acceptance. The framework combines a set of normative criteria the company must meet as a precondition to gaining SLO, wit...

As a consequence of the growing global need for minerals, extractive industries are continuously expanding. In the North, together with several environmental problems such as climate change, this poses a real threat to the traditional livelihoods of Sami people. The article examines how the rights of Sami indigenous people are protected against adverse impacts of mining activities. The relevant national legislation is analyzed in all the four countries where Sami are present. It is specifically examined how the main mining act in each country protects the right of Sami people to their traditional livelihoods. Finally, the article sheds light on the actual effectiveness of the legal regulation. This is done by analyzing the results of interviews conducted with relevant actors and stakeholders in the mining industry.Keywords: indigenous peoples; Sami rights; mining(Published: March 2015)Citation: T. Koivurova et al. “Legal Protection of Sami Traditional Livelihoods from the Adverse Impacts of Mining: A Comparison of the Level of Protection Enjoyed by Sami in Their Four Home States.” Arctic Review on Law and Politics, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2015, pp. 11-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/arctic.v6.76

Finnish companies have a growing and keen interest in entering the changing and improving Northwestern Russian market. According to the World Bank’s rankings for the ease of doing business, Russia ranked at 92 out of 189. The country was however recognized as one of the 29 countries which had improved their rankings in 2012/13 according to reforms in at least 3 of the 10 measured topics. In addition to being ranked in the 50th percentile in the ease of doing business, the Russian business environment and culture must also be considered when deciding to enter a market sector abroad. In understanding the Russian business culture for example, as defined by Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Russia is described as a culture of high power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and pragmatism meaning that the business culture includes the right personal contacts, bureaucratic business processes, and an orientation where the situation, context, and time have meaning for the outcome of the issue at hand. In other words, the culture and businesses thrive on the network of contacts, understanding the processes and systems, as well as on direct personal communication. In addition to the ease of doing business improving and the cultural differences, development projects in specific must go through the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process which has proven to be a market entry barrier into the Northwestern Russian region. It has been found that the EIA process and system in Russia is complex and hard to navigate, even by native developers. The issues of identifying the EIA best practices of the private sector in Northwestern Russia and thus easing the market entry barrier posed by the Russian EIA system and its process for Finnish as well as other international companies looking into entering the Northwestern Russian market are addressed with a toolkit. This toolkit is a free of charge; open, online information service – Russia (ISRussia) designed specifically from the gathered research, feedback, and needs assessment and analysis of Finland’s private sector and thus is specifically designed for the companies.

The case Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan) decided by the International Court of Justice is a landmark that introduces new parameters for measuring the “reasonableness” of scientific research by permit under the International Convention on Whaling. However, aspects of these parameters and how they may be applied in future cases remain uncertain. Because the Court's interpretation of the language “for purposes of scientific research” avoids defining scientific research, the Court's decision provides only a limited degree of clarification for States that intend to operate scientific whaling programs under Article VIII of the Convention. The Court's reasonableness test is unlikely to prevent scientific whaling. States who no longer support the dual object and purpose of the Whaling Convention may want to consider negotiating a new international instrument that would be more protective of whales and their habitat.

The Arctic was one of the main theatres for strategic military confrontation during the Cold War between the blocs led by the United States and the Soviet Union. There was no place for multilateral cooperation, other than for very limited issue areas, such as the 1973 Agreement on Conservation of Polar Bears between the five states with polar bear populations. Yet, the warming of relations by the end of the Cold War changed all this. Inspired by Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev’s speech in 1987, in which the Soviet leader pro-posed various possible areas for Arctic cooperation, differing ideas for international cooperation were advanced. Canadians, in particular, were trying to advance international treaty-based general cooperation for the Arctic, but this never came to pass and it was eventually Finland who was able to broker soft-law collaboration between the Cold War rivals.

This article studies the role of observers under both the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) and the Arctic Council (AC) before the Nuuk ministerial meeting that took place in May 2011. In this meeting, the AC actors were able to find consensus on criteria for admitting new observers, an issue that has received much media attention, given that China and the European Union, for example, are queuing to become observers in the AC. It is of importance to examine the content of these recently adopted Nuuk observer rules and their potential to impact decision-making on whether the external actors can be included as observers. Moreover, this article studies how, if at all, the Nuuk observer rules might affect the position of the AC in the broader setting of circumpolar cooperation.

In the past years, the Arctic states have developed a normative framework that outside actors have to adopt in order to be accepted as observers to the Arctic Council. This chapter scrutinises inasmuch three non-Arctic actors—the European Union, Poland, and China—as observers to the Arctic Council have been socialised into Arctic ways of thinking through the norms and rules promoted by Arctic Council member states and Permanent Participants. Using a socialisation concept, the authors compare to which degree the three observers have internalised the mechanisms of conditionality contained in the observer rules with a special focus on the requirements of observers to respect the rights, values, and traditions of Arctic indigenous peoples and their willingness to contribute to the work of Permanent Participants.

Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources provides a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the role of international law in regulating the exploration and exploitation of natural resources. It illuminates interactions and tensions between international environmental law, human rights law and international economic law. It also discusses the relevance of soft law, international dispute settlement, as well as of various unilateral, bilateral, regional and transnational initiatives in the governance of natural resources. While the Handbook is accessible to those approaching the subject for the first time, it identifies pressing areas for further investigation that will be of interest to advanced researchers.