An Irreplaceable Place: Onto-Epistemological Contestation in the Environmental Impact Assessment Process of the Green Anglo American Sakatti Mine, Arctic Finland

Abstract

Finland adopted the “green mining” concept to reconcile an increase in mineral extraction with conservation needs. Ongoing academic discussions call attention to the social and political factors supporting or challenging new mining projects in the Global North. Particularly understudied are the struggles over existence and knowledge that emerge during environmental accountability processes. This paper is an ethnographic investigation into the onto-epistemological conflict involving the Anglo American Sakatti mine project in the protected Viiankiaapa mire of the Finnish Arctic. It uses material from interviews and stakeholder meetings to analyze how the company’s environmental impact assessment is being challenged and how people affected by mining are articulating their claims against the extractive ontology of replaceability. The findings, with parallels drawn to the Global South, suggest that green mine projects become ontologically conflicted and reveal their inherent fragility when companies increasingly try to minimize impacts and legitimate inevitable harm through offsetting.

Keywords:

• Environmental impact assessment
• environmental accountability
• extractivism
• green mining
• offsetting
• ontology

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to the interlocutors, whose interviews made the publication of this paper possible, as well as for the anonymous reviewers’ insights, which helped me to improve this paper to a great extent. I am grateful to my supervisors, Professor Markus Kröger and University Lecturer Dr. Eija Ranta, for their continuous support throughout the research project.

Notes

1 The EU wide network of protected habitats and species.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article was funded by Alfred Kordelin Foundation grant no. 180220 and 190197.