Whose voice? Understanding stakeholder involvement in law drafting affecting Sami reindeer herding

Abstract

A communication and a legal approach are combined to investigate stakehold-er involvement in law drafting affecting Sami reindeer herding. The thesis fo-cuses on Finland, participation in law drafting in the Act on Metsähallitus (For-est Management and Park Services) and consultation related to the adoption of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries. The research aims at gaining a better understanding of communication preceding and during law drafting processes regarding indigenous land use. It clarifies the changing con-text of the law drafting in which the issue of land use is addressed. Study 1 provides an overview of available studies on participation in mat-ters of land use by the Sami and other indigenous peoples, noting the extent of indigenous peoples’ participation in land use management, and limitations and opportunities that explain indigenous influence, or a lack of it in land use. Study 2 focuses on participation of the Sami in the law drafting process of revision of the Act on Metsähallitus, to increase the understanding of stake-holder involvement and interaction in the law drafting process as an ‘issue are-na’ where multiple actors have a stake. It views law drafting as a communica-tive process, centres on lobbying and therefore identifies key stakeholders, rel-evant issue arenas and steps in law drafting that bring opportunities for partic-ipation. In Study 3, the focus is on the consultation concerning the government bill on the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 169 in Finland and, particularly, on types of issue framing and the positioning of the actors in the complicated interplay in multi-actor law drafting arenas. In these spaces of interaction for policymaking, multiple actors participate and ally, discussing various over-lapping and conflicting issues. The results explain the complexity of stakeholder involvement in law drafting from the perspective of multi-actor issue arenas, acknowledging that the economic stakes are high in the debate on ratification. The competitiveness of the land use issue causes a selective nature of the discussion and, conse-quently, the slow progress in the ILO 169 case.