The Interplay Between Non-Human Animals and Modernising Forestry in Finland During 1910s

Abstract

This paper examines the interplay between forestry and non-human animals in the early twentieth century Finland, a period of modernisation, economic upheaval and shifting paradigms. The argument focuses on the precedence of the economic utility over non-human animals revealing the impacts of this competition. The paper explores Professor A. K. Cajander’s (1879–1943)
unpublished manuscript Metsänhoidon perusteet III [Foundations of Forestry pt. III], a work that provides a nuanced insight into the simultaneous roles animals played in shaping forestry discourse and reflecting ideologies connected to forestry. To contextualise Cajander’s arguments, the paper discusses other books by Cajander as well other published book and newspaper sources. The article makes the case for a new methodology of environmental intellectual history by
positioning animals as a critical focal point of analysis thus challenging anthropocentric views and uncovers transformative perspectives on the agency of non-human animals in historical texts and their roles in environmental dynamics.