After abandonment? Growth and controversy over fields and forests

Abstract

Abandoned farmland has become a symbol of agrarian and rural crisis and deterioration in Russia over the past decades. Recently, however, through campaigns dedicated to the future use of abandoned land, environmental organizations have reframed it as a promising opportunity. Growing forests on such land, they argue, would entail multiple environmental, social, and economic benefits. Theirs is a story of organic growth. Just as trees already grow where agriculture withdrew, further benefits would flourish once dysfunctional governance schemes were abandoned. Abandonment, in this narrative, sets the scene for new beginnings. However, the suggestion to nurture new forests on abandoned farmland became controversial. Inquiring into this controversy allows to reflect on some limitations of narratives of growth after abandonment. Rather than organic growth, we find some deep-rooted antagonism then. Where some see forests others see fields, and where some see growth others see abandonment. The presentation discusses the controversy over Russia’s “new forests” as a case of issue-articulation (Marres), and explores the role of visualization, in the double sense of representing in a visual form and envisioning future possibilities, as part of it.