Reindeer Blog

The new railway line connecting the Yamal Peninsula with the rest of the Russian railway grid has been declared open to regular traffic. Regular operation of the 572 km long railroad to its terminal point – the Karskaya station – was launched in February 15. The line connects major regional installations like the Bovanenkovo gas [...]

One of the largest wind farms in the world is being built in northern Sweden but not everyone is pleased about it. The turbines cut across an area used by Sweden’s indigenous Sámi reindeer herders. An hour’s drive inland from the town of Piteå, a dozen wind turbines tower over the surrounding forest. In the [...]

So said, the Minister for Industry of Norway (Labour Party) while announcing a big increase in funding for mining exploration in the country in a story that appeared in Adressa.no The Norwegian Geological Survey (NGU) believes there is a vast wealth of minerals and ore under the soil just waiting to be exploiting – only [...]

Across the Far North, populations of caribou — an indispensable source of food and clothing for indigenous people — are in steep decline. Scientists point to rising temperatures and a resource-development boom as the prime culprits. by Ed Struzik, from Environment 360 In late July, a group of Inuit hunters set off by boat along [...]

The Canadian mining company Blackstone ventures has managed to buy the rights to start drilling in the Vindelfjällen nature reserve in the north of Sweden. The company is planning to drill right by one of the most ancient Sámi summer villages still inhabited every summer by the reindeer herders and reindeer  of Grans Sameby, the [...]

Пресс-служба Государственного Собрания (Ил Тумэн) Республики Саха (Якутия) сообщает, что депутаты парламента приняли в ходе XVI пленарного заседания республиканский закон об этнологической экспертизе в местах традиционного проживания и традиционной хозяйственной деятельности коренных малочисленных народов Севера.

The Moscow Times informed that “RusHydro” will not decide on whether to build a dam in Evenkia this year, the company said Friday, after the project was lambasted at public hearings in Krasnoyarsk. The Energy Ministry has finished work on the 2020 general plan of power generation, which predicts a growth in annual power consumption [...]

The Saami Council, the NGO that represents the Sami people in all four countries in which they live have released a strongly worded press release criticising the German bank KfW IPEX for their funding of a giant wind power project in Sami reindeer herding areas, in contravention of the OECD Convention on Multilateral Enterprises. In [...]

The Board of the University of the Arctic (UArctic) has approved the establishment of UArctic Institute for Circumpolar Reindeer Husbandry, as a result of the International Polar Year (IPY) project and the IPY EALÁT project.

In northern Norway, each year, reindeer migrate from the interior to the coast in an ancient movement coupling animals and people. In contemporary times, with dramatically increased settlement and development on the coast this has meant that summer brings stories of conflict between reindeer husbandry and cabin dwellers, farmers, mining interests, municipalities and others. Unfortunately, [...]