The Lorax Project: Understanding Ecosystemic Politics (LORAX)
“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
The Lorax project is a comparative effort to expand scholarly understanding of hitherto largely overlooked sites of politics – those located between global and national politics and built up around mutually acknowledged ‘shared ecosystems.’ The core question here is: Do regional politics around border-crossing ecosystems share important resemblances and differ in significant ways from global politics?
To address this question, the Lorax project analyzes the networks of participation, hierarchies of actors and diplomatic norms of the governance fields that have grown up around efforts to ‘speak for’ border-crossing ecosystems in three locations – the Arctic, the Amazon Basin, and the Caspian Sea.
Funding program
The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.Articles
Call for papers for a panel at the European International Studies Association Pan-European Conference (EISAPEC 2022)
Want to submit a paper for EISCAPEC 2022? Now is your chance.
Transnational Ecosystems Cooperation is Taking off
Do these efforts to govern border-crossing ecosystems have unique effects that matter for global politics more generally?
Reduced influence in the Arctic?
In the Arctic Council, eight states work on, among several other pressing issues, the alarming impacts of global climate change. But who gets a say? Research Professor Elana Wilson Rowe investigates this in a new article.
International Organisations and the Caspian Sea Ecosystem
Lorax in Motion is a series whereby we report and reflect upon the Lorax project team’s ongoing research activities. Here, we catch up with Paul Beaumont, who is co-authoring a paper with Elana Wilson Rowe ( the PI of Lorax) investigating the social and political consequences of environmental coope1
Lorax in Motion: Mapping Amazon Ecosystem Networks
This is the second in our “Lorax in Motion” series, which reports on our reflections from the project as it unfolds.
Lorax in Motion: Building the Transnational Ecosystem Politics Database
Lorax in Motion is a series whereby we report and reflect upon the Lorax project’s ongoing research activities. Here, we zoom in upon Lorax’s Dr Cristiana Maglia, who recently received her PhD in Political Science Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), aft1
Launching Norway’s Plan for the UN’s “Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development”
NUPI’s Centre for Ocean Governance is ready to step up to challenge.
Prestigious ERC funding to Elana Wilson Rowe – ‘I’m thrilled!’
The European Research Council (ERC) yearly awards talented early career researchers project funding through Starting grants. 403 research projects were granted this year, and Elana Wilson Rowe's (NUPI) is one of them.
Publications
Introduction: Is the time nigh for ecological security?
The Amazon rainforest and the global–regional politics of ecosystem governance
Networked territoriality: A processual–relational view on the making (and makings) of regions in world politics
Space, nature and hierarchy: the ecosystemic politics of the Caspian Sea
Ecosystemic politics: Analyzing the consequences of speaking for adjacent nature on the global stage
Unexplored resources for EU Arctic policy: Energy, oceans and space
EU's Arktispolitik er for snæver
Considering ecological security from the perspective of Arctic ecosystemic politics
Ecosystems and Ordering: Exploring the Extent and Diversity of Ecosystem Governance
Project Manager
Participants
Kristin Fjæstad
Senior Research Fellow, head of the Research group on Russia, Asia and international trade
Events
Virtual Book Talk: Towards An Ecosystems Approach to Climate Security?
Matt McDonald discusses his radical new ethical framework for reckoning with the climate crisis and how it can be put into practice.
Environmental challenges know no borders – Foreign policy for a habitable planet
What obstacles is there in solving the climate crisis? Who is responsible for saving us from it? Does it matter what we do locally and nationally? What role does foreign policy play in reaching the goal? WWF, J.M. Stenersens Forlag and NUPI invites you to a mini-lecture with David Wallace-Wells and1
Theory seminar: States and Nature – The Effects of Climate Change on Security
Joshua Busby, University of Texas-Austin, will present the main argument and empirical work from his draft book manuscript.
Governing oceans in an age of global shifts
How can we ensure that the oceans are governed in a secure and sustainable way? How can coastal states like Norway use the oceans to increase their economic growth? Welcome to this seminar and launch of NUPI’s new Center for Ocean Governance.
Science diplomacy and security in the Arctic
At this year's Arctic Frontiers, we will take a closer look at diplomacy and security in the Arctic.