Planning for social sustainability within Indigenous territories (PlanIT): Mine developments in Sami reindeer herding areas with a comparative and justice lens

In Sweden, and several other countries, mineral extractions are controversial and causes intractable land-use and sustainability conflicts.

Transition to a sustainable society and implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals require access to mineral resources.

Increasing demands of critical minerals will further already tangible land-use conflicts, especially in northern Sweden where the Indigenous Sami since immemorial times practice reindeer herding, hunting and fishing.

Sweden’s planning framework has an urban bias and lacks proper mechanisms for dealing with land use issues on a landscape-scale.

The aim of this project is to explore how strategic and collaborative planning in rural areas can help handling land use conflicts for mine developments in ways that are perceived as fair and legitimate.

Collaboration between actors is key as well as proper regulatory frameworks and a landscape scale. “PlanIT” applies a comparative and transdisciplinary approach to develop new knowledge and planning solutions for mineral-related land use conflicts in northern Sweden.

By learning from good examples abroad, the project generates customized planning solutions for a Swedish context and thereby supports transition to a sustainable society in rural and urban areas.

While the focus of this proposal is on mineral extractions in northern Sweden, the conceptual approach and planning solutions can be applied in other geographical contexts and natural resource conflicts.