DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17249308
title: Recognition Without Implementation: Institutional Gaps and Forestry Expansion in Post-Girjas Swedish Sápmi - Dataset and Analysis

description: Recognition Without Implementation: Institutional Gaps and Forestry Expansion in Post-Girjas Swedish Sápmi - Dataset and Analysis

Description

This deposit contains the dataset and analysis code supporting the research paper "Recognition Without Implementation: Institutional Gaps and Forestry Expansion in Post-Girjas Swedish Sápmi" by Stefan Holgersson and Scott Brown.

Research Overview: This study examines forestry permit trends in Swedish Sámi territories following the landmark 2020 Girjas Supreme Court ruling, which recognized exclusive Sámi rights over hunting and fishing in traditional lands. Using 432 region-year observations (1998-2024) from the Swedish Forest Agency, we document a 242% increase in clearcutting approvals during 2020-2024 compared to pre-2020 averages, with state/corporate actors showing 313% increases and private landowners 197%.

Key Findings:



Clearcutting intensified most in regions with strongest Sámi territorial claims (Västerbotten +369%, Norra Norrland +275%)

State actors exhibited greater intensification than private landowners despite public accountability mandates

Three institutional mechanisms correlate with continued extraction: legal non-integration of customary tenure, implementation deficits between judicial recognition and administrative enforcement, and ESG disclosure opacity


Important Limitation: We cannot isolate causal effects of the Girjas ruling from concurrent shocks including COVID-19 economic disruption, EU Taxonomy implementation, and commodity price volatility. The analysis documents institutional conditions and correlational patterns rather than establishing causation.

Dataset Contents:



Clearcut.xlsx: Swedish Forest Agency clearcutting permit data (1998-2024) disaggregated by region, ownership type, and year

SAMI.ipynb: Jupyter notebook containing Python code for descriptive statistics, time series analysis, and figure generation


How to Use These Files in Google Colab:



Download the files from this Zenodo deposit to your computer

Open Google Colab at https://colab.research.google.com

Upload the notebook:



Click "File" → "Upload notebook"

Select SAMI.ipynb from your downloads



Upload the data file:



In the Colab notebook, click the folder icon in the left sidebar

Click the upload button (page with up arrow)

Select Clearcut.xlsx from your downloads

The file will appear in the /content/ directory



Run the analysis:



Execute cells sequentially by pressing Shift+Enter

The notebook will automatically load Clearcut.xlsx from the current directory

All figures and statistics will generate inline




Alternative method (direct from Zenodo):









 

 




python



# Add this cell at the top of the notebook to download files directly
!wget https://zenodo.org/record/[RECORD_ID]/files/Clearcut.xlsx



Replace [RECORD_ID] with the actual Zenodo record number after publication.

Requirements: The notebook uses standard Python libraries: pandas, numpy, matplotlib, seaborn. These are pre-installed in Google Colab. No additional setup required.

Methodology: Descriptive statistical analysis combined with institutional document review. Data covers eight administrative regions in northern Sweden with mountain-adjacent forests relevant to Sámi reindeer herding territories.

Policy Relevance: Findings inform debates on Indigenous land rights implementation, forestry governance reform, ESG disclosure requirements, and the gap between legal recognition and operational constraints in resource extraction contexts.

Keywords: Indigenous rights, Sámi, forestry governance, legal pluralism, Sweden, Girjas ruling, land tenure, corporate accountability, ESG disclosure

License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)