Significance of affect and ethics in applying conservation standards: The practices of flying squirrel surveyors

Abstract

We examine human-animal encounters as the generative source of affective knowing and learning to study the role of affect in the implementation of nature conservation. The study is based on ethnographic research following the embodied practices of biological field surveyors working with Siberian flying squirrels (Pteromys volans) in land use planning in Finland. The case is characterized by radical uncertainties due to the elusive life of flying squirrels, the strict conservation standard of the EU, and the pressure of urban development. The surveyors can use only indirect clues to detect these nocturnal animals, but are required to produce accurate and unambiguous ecological knowledge to planners. We found that affective learning enables knowing and increases the reliability of knowledge in such conditions. Affective learning results from alternation between constant encountering of clues and changing intensities that produce feeling states and a sense of the forest where the animals live. Ethical consideration and personal differences are important in affective learning and shape the surveyors as participants in standard development. Finally we discuss the possible implications of affective learning for standard design in nature conservation.

Making a difference: Forest biodiversity, affective capacities, and the micro-politics of expert fieldwork

“…We draw on research inspired by the philosophies of Spinoza and Deleuze, emphasising affects as responsive capacities, which develop through interactions between humans and their surroundings (Adey, 2008;Anderson, 2006;Bennett, 2010;Duff, 2011;Lorimer, 2008;Nygren and Jokinen, 2013;Thrift, 2008).…”

“…the forest. Unlike corncrake surveyors (Lorimer, 2008), flying squirrel surveyors (Nygren and Jokinen, 2013), or bat researchers (Mason and Hope, 2014), foresters need to accommodate themselves to the ecologies of various objects, not just a single species. This makes the adoption of simple rules of thumb even more important.…”

“…In particular, we draw on affect theory, which offers an analytic perspective on such experiences. Affective bodily capacities and responding to non-human ways of being can be viewed as a precondition for knowing nature, as exemplified by numerous ethnographies of nature surveyors (Lorimer, 2008;Nygren and Jokinen, 2013;Mason and Hope, 2014).…”

Managing wild minds: From control by numbers to a multinatural approach in wild boar management in the Veluwe, the Netherlands

“…These interplays involve affective relationships. As has been illustrated for water voles in Birmingham, UK (Hinchliffe et al., ), corncrakes in the Hebrides, UK (Lorimer, ), bats in Hampshire, UK (Mason & Hope, ), Siberian flying squirrels in Finland (Nygren & Jokinen, ) and a reindeer herd in the Cairngorm mountain range, Scotland, UK (Lorimer, ), such affective relationships are a crucial element of knowing as well as managing wild animals. Specifically, scholarly work using this notion of affect has helped to bring into view the various ways in which bodies (whether an individual or collective of humans, or wild animals) act on each other and how they are moved and transformed in the process (Anderson, ; Latimer & Miele, ; Pile, ).…”

Uusi harrastus, uudet kehykset, uusi kyborgi, uusi ympäristö

“…1990-luvulla luin viikkokaupalla metsätieteellisen tiedekunnan pääsykokeisiin ja rupesin näkemään junan ikkunasta pelkästään metsien kasvuluokkia ja muuta metsätieteellistähakkuukypsä tai ensiraivauksen tarpeessa oleva metsä, ytimennävertäjien harventamia latvuksia. Vuosia myöhemmin tutkimme liito-oravakartoittajien työtä (Nygren & Jokinen 2013) ja heidän katsettaan metsässä, ja opin itsekin löytämään potentiaalisia liito-oravapuita, suuria haapoja ja kuusia ja niiden juurilta papanoita. Maastopyöräily on tuonut taas uuden katseen -olisiko tuo hyvä (ja teknisesti tarpeeksi helppo) polku minulle, entä tuo, olisiko tuota tietä kiva ajaa?…”