Reindeer Blog

(Source – Metsähallitus / NRK Sami Radio) Metsähallitus and three Sámi reindeer herders from Nellim in Finnish Lapland have settled their disagreement, formerly under review in various courts of law and the UN Human Rights Committee. An agreement between Metsähallitus and Kalevi, Eero and Veijo Paadar specifies which state-owned lands in Nellim are to be available [...]

(Pic. Helsingin Sanomat) Three Sami reindeer herders from Nellim, in Northern FInland have just lost their case against the Finnish state forestry giant Metsahallitus in the Lapland District Court. The reindeer herders argued that the logging practices of Metsahallitus was destroying reindeer pastures – ground lichen and hanging tree lichen and were not only threatening [...]

(From Helsingin Sanomat, March 2, 2008) ”…It is not immediately apparent that Nellim is a place where the three most enduring disputes of northernmost Finnish Lapland converge: the conflict over the use of forests, disagreements over land ownership and the rights of the Sami people, and the dispute over reindeer husbandry. All of these are interlinked.  [...]