Reindeer Blog

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will exploit Swedish leadership role in the EU and the Barents co-operation to get wider European interest in the North and the Arctic.
- From a Norwegian point of view, it is interesting that Sweden in a few month, have the Presidency of both EU and Barents Cooperation.
Wednesday he and [...]

On September 14th, people in Norway will go to the polls – for the national elections, for the Sami Parliament elections and the municipality and regional elections. As a result, the Norwegian media has been full of little else, these last few weeks. NRK Sami Radio ran a piece recently that asked where all [...]

Президент Республики Саха (Якутия) Вячеслав Штыров подписал Указ о присуждении Государственной премии Республики Саха (Якутия) имени В.М.Кладкина в области оленеводства за 2008 год.
За вклад в развитие оленеводства и внедрение новых передовых технологий она присуждена:
Соловьеву Василию Викторовичу — бригадиру оленеводческой бригады №5 сельскохозяйственного производственного кооператива «Малтан» — за профессионализм, высокие производственные показатели и плодотворный труд, Момский [...]

Ingen sänkt bensinskatt för rennäringen / No lowered Fuel duty for reindeerhusbandry
Regeringen har för flera år sen sänkt skatten för bränsle som används i jord- och skogsbruk. Men när det gäller skattelättnader för bränsle i rennäringen så säger regeringen nej. ”Diskriminering”, menar renägarförbundet.
The government has for several years ago lowered the tax on fuel used [...]

(Press release from the Saami Council) The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination criticizes Sweden for numerous forms of discrimination of the Saami people in unusually concrete and strong language, in particular with regard to the Saami people’s right to land.
The United Nations has for several years condemned Sweden for not recognizing [...]

(Pic – Moscow Times, Kopin sworn in, as Abramovich watches) Yesterday, the new Governor of Chukotka (Roman Kopin) was sworn in and not long afterwards, the former Governor Roman Abramovich – whose personal riches completely transformed the province’s fortunes – announced that he would be running for the post of speaker in the [...]

While this story might seem more appropriate elsewhere, for the residents of Chukotka, the majority of whom are Chukchi (there are also Yupik, Yukaghir, Even and others) several thousand are engaged in reindeer husbandry, it it is important news. The collapse of the Soviet Union was a disaster for Chukchi reindeer husbandry, and the decline [...]

(Pic – Philip Burgess, Reindeer in downtown Hammerfest) A media fury has erupted in Finnmark surrounding comments by a parliamentary representative Olav Gunnar Ballo who claimed that reindeer herders did not have the right to live and that reindeer husbandry was acting as a brake to development and that as a livelihood ‘it was just [...]

Predation is a serious problem for reindeer herders in the spring and early summer after calving season, as young calves are particularly vulnerable to predation. Kristian Jåma, a Sami reindeer herder from Sør-Fosen in Sør-Trøndelag region said to NRK Sami Radio that he feels that his claims about predation loss are not believed. In a [...]