BlueAdapt-hankkeen seminaarissa Lapin Yliopistossa 25.-26.9.  keskustellaan ympäristöhallinnon mahdollisuuksista vastata uuden tieteelliseen tiedon, uusien teknologioiden ja muuttuvien sosiaalisten arvojen synnyttämiin epävarmuuksiin. Kuinka ympäristöhallintoa voidaan muuttaa niin, että se kykenisi vastaamaan muutoksiin ympäristössään?

Seminaarissa kysymystä lähestytään keskittymällä sopeutuvaan valuma-alueiden hallintoon. Valuma-alueita koskettavat lukuisat, osittain myös toistensa kanssa kilpailevat paineet. Kuinka sopeutuva hallinto voisi edistää näihin vastaamista? 

25.9. kuulemme eri asiantuntijoiden puheenvuoroja muun muassa vesivoiman ja vaelluskalakantojen asettamista ristipaineista, maankäytön vaikutuksista vesiresursseihin sekä sopeutuvan hallinnon lainsäädännöllisistä kysymyksistä. 26.9. alan uranuurtaja Prof. Barbara Cosens University of Idaho College of Law -yliopistosta pitää yleisöluennon sopeutuvan hallinnon haasteista. Seminaarin tarkempi ohjelma ja lisätietoja alla. Tilaisuus striimataan, ja luentoja voi seurata: 

25.9: Seminaari. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvOIqr4XxBs
26.9: Yleisöluento https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXSSmrHW5ug

Voit ilmoittautua seminaariin 20.9. mennessä Tuija Kaihualle, tuija.kaihua@ulapland.fi
Lisätietoja antaa Jukka Similä (jukka.simila@ulapland.fi) 

Addressing uncertainty –  Exploring possibilities for Adaptive Governance of Nordic Rivers

SEMINAR SERIES
DATE: 25.9.2018, 9.30–17.00
VENUE: Castrén lecture room, University of Lapland
ORGANISERS: University of Lapland, University of Eastern Finland,
Finnish Environment Institute, University of Helsinki
This seminar focuses on adaptive governance of Nordic river basins. Water resources are essential for energy and food production as well as for tourism and biodiversity. Some water uses are complementary, whereas some are rivalling. Especially hydropower production and land use impacts on water quality have a history of societal tension in Finland. These tensions are mostly due to a mismatch between historical modes of natural resources governance and present social ecological needs. This seminar aims to discuss the ways how to change governance modes to respond to present social ecological needs.

River basins are complex and dynamic systems with myriad social, ecological and economic components. In an era of global environmental change, most notably climate change and biodiversity loss, scientific uncertainty underscores all management and governance of such systems. Environmental change and uncertainty call for adaptive governance, which allows new scientific knowledge, new technologies and changing societal values to be considered in environmental and water management. This in turn requires interdisciplinary science and institutional, procedural and substantive adaptive capacity from the law.

The seminar is organised under the ‘Enhancing Adaptive Capacity for Sustainable Blue Growth (BlueAdapt)’ project. BlueAdapt develops innovative means for supporting sustainable blue growth in food production, energy production and tourism. We seek new societally impactful solutions and alternative development paths for sustainable transitions in these three sectors. We develop new governance practices and regulatory approaches that support the resilience of ecological, social and economic systems. BlueAdapt is funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland.
blueadapt.fi/en/project-info/

Program 25.9. 9.30–17.00

9.30–11.00
Prof. Jukka Similä (University of Lapland): Welcoming words
Prof. Anna-Stiina Heiskanen (Finnish Environment Institute):
Introduction to the BlueAdapt project (Agora)
Prof. Barbara Cosens (University of Idaho):
Challenges and solutions in regulating river basin management
Coffee

11.20–12.20
Researcher Hannu Huukki (Oulu Business School):
The role of hydropower in the Finnish energy system
Senior research scientist Aki Mäki-Petäys (Natural Resources Institute Finland): Impacts of hydropower on river habitats and migratory fish stock
Lunch

14.30–15.30
Research Scientist Seppo Hellsten (Finnish Environment Institute):
Impacts of land use on water resources
Prof. Niko Soininen (University of Helsinki):
Torn by (un)certainty – legal problems in river basin management
Researcher Panu Kontio (Finnish Environment Institute): Stakeholder engagement: a solution to improve implementation of watershed management?
Coffee

14.30–15.30
Researcher Panu Orell (Natural Resources Institute Finland):
How to integrate the needs of hydropower and migratory fish
Prof. Jukka Similä (University of Lapland):
Offsetting as a means to compensate environmental harms
Coffee

16.00–17.00
Panel Discussion: Way forward. Facilitator Mikael Sokero, Seppo Hellsten,
Antti Belinskij, Panu Kontio, Panu Orell, Barbara Cosens

PUBLIC LECTURE: Prof. Barbara Cosens
DATE: 26.9.2018 at 14.00–16.00
VENUE: Castrén lecture room University of Lapland

The Adaptive Water Governance project examined how law, policy, and ecological dynamics influence the governance of regional-scale water-based social-ecological systems. With the onset of the Anthropocene, global and regional changes in biophysical inputs to these systems will challenge their capacity to respond while maintaining functions of water supply, flood control, hydropower production, water quality, and biodiversity in a time of aging infrastructure. At the heart of the capacity of these systems to respond to these challenges is their governance. Governance of these complex and dynamic social-environmental systems has moved beyond state-centric, legally bounded control to a complex mix of public/private self-organization.
This talk will focus on three challenges to adaptive water governance. The first is to consider the role of law in removing barriers to adaptive governance by facilitating actions that take advantage of windows of opportunity and institutionalize the results of innovative solutions. The second challenge is to assure that in embracing these new approaches to governance, the engagement of private and economic actors and the increase in governmental flexibility do not destabilize nor come at the expense of legitimacy, accountability, equity, and justice. Law in its role of establishing the structure and process of government and in placing bounds on the interaction of governmental entities with private actors is a key component in striking the balance between stability in government and adaptability of governance. The third challenge is to identify whether and when government must be authorized to facilitate and participate in adaptive governance.
Meeting these challenges will increase the capacity of these social-ecological systems to innovate, adapt, and learn their way into an uncertain future, by increasing participation in adaptive governance in ways that are legitimate, transparent, and just.

Prof. Barbara Cosens is a University Distinguished Professor with the University of Idaho College of Law, where she has taught for the past fifteen years. Her LL.M. is from Lewis and Clark law school, J.D. from the University of California, Hastings, M.S. in Geology from the University of Washington, and B.S. in Geology from the University of California, Davis. Her teaching and research expertise is in water law, the law-science interface and water dispute resolution. She is co-PI on the UI Water Resources IGERT focused on adaptation to climate change. She co-chaired the Adaptive Water Governance project made possible through support from the NSF funded National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, SESYNC, and spent spring 2015 as the Goyder Institute in Australia comparing water law reform in the western U.S. and Australia during drought. In her outreach and engagement, she serves as an expert on the Columbia River Treaty and on the process of Native American and federal water settlement.