FOREST RIGHTS

The Forest Rights study provides new information on how individual rights have changed as a result of various turning points and legal cases. International research is interdisciplinary and combines art and science.

The research project is led by Professor Päivi Kymäläinen from Tampere University. Postdoctoral researcher Rebecca Frilund from Tampere University and Professor Nicholas Blomley (CAN) from Simon Fraser University are also working as researchers. Finnish visual artist (MA) Kirsi Jaakkola is the artist for the project.

The research material consists of legal cases related to human rights from the last hundred years. In addition, researchers examine the status and future of human rights from the perspectives of gender, citizenship, foreign seasonal work, and non-human factors in the forest. Artistic methods enable us to approach the material in a new way and discover possible future prospects for everyone’s rights. The research combines interviews, ethnography, listening walks, and art interventions. The outputs will include scientific articles, symposia, and popular publications. The project will conclude with the Forest Rights exhibition, which will disseminate the project’s results in a way that appeals to a wide audience.

In our project, we ask: (1) How are everyones rights realized and questioned in everyday life? (2) How do these activities relate to perceptions of land ownership as a territory: a precisely defined and administered area? (3) Which activities in forests are seen as acceptable or reprehensible in terms of everyman’s rights? (4) What kinds of cracks can be identified in the implementation of everyman’s rights, and what kinds of social changes are they associated with?