Reindeer Blog

Three young Sami reindeer herders from Härjedalen,  Sweden have started a blog where they write about their everyday life as reindeer herders in this area. The reason for the blog is an ongoing law suit, where the Sami villages have lost their rights to reindeer grazing in this area. And while an agreement would appear [...]

The World Society for the Protection of Animals has added their voice to what seems certain to to become an annual right of passage – animals rights organisations using the Christmas season to raise their own profile with media friendly releases about the ‘mistreatreatment’ of reindeer by reindeer herders. Another organisation, VIVA, launched a similar [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

A multi stakeholder seminar was held in the Kautokeino, Norway yesterday which focussed on the issue of mining in Finnmark, an issue of some controversy in the region since the passing of the Finnmark Act which devolved desicion making powers over multiple resource issues to the region of Finnmark. The seminar was attended by the [...]

In a billowing cloud of white, Russia’s Arctic herders drive thousands of panting and wild-eyed reindeer through the knee-deep snow to the first slaughter this year. But warm winters in recent years have forced herders here in the far northern Kola Peninsula to delay for months the rounding up of their reindeer from the vast [...]

A proposal on a new convention on cross-border reindeer grazing between Norway and Sweden is now completed. The two countries’ negotiating delegations finished their work in Stockholm 24 February, and the negotiation results are now submitted to Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Norway and the Agriculture Ministry in Sweden for further follow-up.

Laila Marielle Bergstrøm is a reindeer herder in the Saanti reindeer herding district in North Trøndelag, in the southern Sami region. Her regular reindeer herding help has a bad knee, so she took the unusual step of placing a ‘help wanted’  ad in the media in Finnmark, northern Norway. The position is for 3 months, [...]

Samerna borde ha samma rätt att avliva djur som judar och muslimerna. Det menade advokaten Trond Biti när samisk tradition sattes mot norsk lag igår i högsta domstolen i Norge. Trond Biti menar att muslimer och judar avlivar djuren med knivstick utan att bedöva (SR.se). Sami should have the same right to kill animals as [...]

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 [...]