Dynamics of Sustainable Livelihoods

Objectives of the study
The Finnish forest industry imports remarkable amounts of raw material from Russia. However, we do not know how the wood procurement of Finnish companies affects the lives of local people in Russian towns and villages that are dependent on forestry. On the bases of the selected case studies on communities we aim at providing scientifically competent and comparable information on how wood procurement changes ways of life in villages and towns of

Northwest Russia Conceptual framework
The SIA involves characterizing the existing state of local community life. We propose a model as analytical tool to catch the variety of essential factors having impact on the community livelihood outcomes. In our study the sustainable forestry livelihoods approach embraces economic, social, institutional and ecological elements, all of which are components of sustainability. Therefore, the combinations of assets, strategies, activities and external risks may change in space and over time. All these interact, in order to maintain the overall livelihoods stability.

Data and research methods
We describe our main research strategy as action research ethnography, which means combining local appraisals to dialogical communication schemes with local population concerning community development patterns and scenarios.

Project leader: Prof. Marja Järvelä, University of Jyväskylä, P.O.Box 35 (MAB), 40014 University of Jyväskylä, mjarvela(at)yfi.jyu.fi

Researhers:
Mikhail Tarasov. Forest Ecology Lab, Head. St Petersburg Forestry Research Institute, mike(at)mt3606.spb.edu
Katinka Lybäck, Univeristy of Jyväskylä, lytaka(at)cc.jyu.fi
Uuve Södor, University of Jyväskylä, uuvsod(at)cc.jyu.fi

Project web pages: http://www.jyu.fi/yhtfil/susfoli/

Project description