Samförvaltade

Samförvaltade, meaning co-managed or jointly governed, is a Swedish term used to describe governance arrangements in which responsibility for a resource or area is shared between several actors. Typically these include local communities or user groups, indigenous groups, private landowners, and public authorities. The arrangement can be formal, laid down in agreements or legislation, or informal, anchored in shared norms and practices. Decision-making, rights to benefits, and duties are distributed among participants, often with joint planning, oversight, and enforcement.

In natural resource contexts, samförvaltning is commonly applied to forests, water resources, fisheries, and protected areas, but it may also apply to cultural heritage sites or urban commons. It is used in Sweden, Norway, and other Nordic contexts to describe co-management approaches that integrate scientific knowledge with local or traditional knowledge, aiming to improve sustainability and legitimacy of decisions.

Benefits of samförvaltning include greater legitimacy, better alignment with local needs, improved compliance and resilience, and access to local knowledge. Challenges include power asymmetries between participants, conflicts of interest, resource limitations, and complexities in coordinating among actors and across governance levels. Effective samförvaltning often relies on clear agreements, transparent governance mechanisms, and capacity-building.

See also: co-management, participatory governance, indigenous rights, decentralization.