Lapland Forest Jury | Research group for innovating democracy

In 2022, we organised a citizens’ jury to examine Lapland residents’ views on forest use. The jury was convened by the Regional Council of Lapland (Lapin liitto). Recruitment and practical implementation were handled by researchers from the FACTOR project at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), the University of Turku, and the Finnish Environment Institute. The citizens’ jury and the associated research survey were linked to the Regional Council of Lapland’s Green Transition Programme, one set of measures of which concerns climate-smart forest use.

The jury’s task was to produce recommendations for the Green Transition subcommittee coordinated by the Regional Council of Lapland on what kind of forest use would take climate change into account and be fair.

Climate change has created a need to consider forest use in Finland, including in Lapland. The Lapland Forest Jury’s task was to draw up recommendations on what constitutes fair forest use in Lapland that takes climate change into account. The jury aimed to bring a deliberated citizen perspective into the discussion on forest use.

Initially, 6,000 people were invited, drawn by random sampling from all residents of the region of Lapland aged 18–80 from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. Of those invited, 240 volunteered, and the jury was formed from this pool. The aim was to select participants in a diverse way so that they would represent Lapland’s population as well as possible in terms of age, gender, educational background, and place of residence. In total, 33 people ultimately participated.

The jury met over two weekends in November: the first in Levi and the second in Rovaniemi. Between the meetings, on 17 November, the jury heard from experts remotely via Teams. At the end of the deliberations, participants formulated a joint statement on the topic. The statement consisted of three parts: an overview of the situation of forest use in Lapland, key problem areas, and recommendations. The jury’s recommendations were received by the Green Transition subcommittee coordinated by the Regional Council of Lapland, which promotes and monitors Lapland’s transition to a green, sustainable economy.

Read the Forest Jury statement

Read the Green Transition subcommittee’s response to the Forest Jury (in Finnish)

Research Manager, Leading Researcher Katriina Soini, katriina.soini@luke.fi
Project Researcher Katariina Kulha, kasuku@utu.fi