Sanna Komi is a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki in Development Studies. Her research is part of the CONVIVA project which explores the concept of convivial conservation which offers an alternative to the model of conservation through capitalism. Sanna’s work within this project is specifically connected to wolf conservation in Finland and the attitudes towards wolf conservation. In general, her work concentrates on moving beyond the nature/society dichotomy and the model of conservation by commodification (i.e. conservation coming from a neoliberal point of view that seeks to extract something from nature by conserving it.) In this conversation we talk about apex predators, capitalism, values, and the role of extractivism in conservation.

Links:

Convivial Conservation: https://convivialconservation.com/

Büscher, Bram, and Robert Fletcher. "Towards convivial conservation." Conservation & Society 17, no. 3 (2019): 283-296. http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2019;volume=17;issue=3;spage=283;epage=296;aulast=B

Luonto-Liitto (The Finnish Nature League): http://www.luontoliitto.fi/en

Luonto-Liitton Susiryhmä (The Wolf Action Group from the Finnish Nature League): http://www.luontoliitto.fi/susiryhma/in-english

The webpages of the Finnish Game Institute: https://riista.fi/ (homepage – in Finnish); https://riista.fi/riistatalous/riistakannat/hoitosuunnitelmat/susikanta/ (wolf opinion page – in Finnish); other resources available in English via the search function at https://riista.fi/en/