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According to Helena Omma, the leader of the Saminuorra the youth perspective is often missing in these kinds of processes, so there is a need for the youth to explain their own lives with their own words and  how this process affects them and how they believe that they have a future in reindeer husbandry in Härjedalen.

Visit the blog here (in Swedish)

Read the press release from the Saami Council about the case here on the Reindeer Portal.

Wind turbine at Markbygden near Piteå. Photo: Tom Sullivan / SR International

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 next few years 1,101 turbines will be erected here at a cost of $8.2 billion.

“This plateau has really good wind conditions – that’s the main reason it’s being built here,” said Jonas Lundmark from the local council.

“Also 95 percent of the land is owned by two forestry companies and there has been a steady decline in the population over the last 50 years. People living here are very keen to get more business into the area.”

By 2020, the wind farm is expected to provide about half of the national target for new wind energy – about 12 terawatt hours – that’s roughly the equivalent of two Swedish nuclear reactors, according to the company building the wind farm.

Wind power is a high priority for the Swedish government, and the local power to veto planning applications for wind farms has been removed to pave the way for more of them.

Stefan Lundmark, from the Swedish ministry of enterprise and energy says that the trend across the Nordic countries is to build in northern, more sparsely populated areas.

Sámi reindeer herders losing grazing land

“I think that the wind farms will be bigger and bigger and most of them will be in northern Sweden. In the south it’s more densely populated and there are more competing interests,” he said.

Leaving the wind farm traffic, the only traffic I met on the newly paved road was a herd of reindeer that shot out in front of the car, forcing me to stop. With the low winter sun I almost failed to see them until it was too late.

The new road winds through the Sámi reindeer herding lands, and the local herders say it will limit their movements and endanger their animals. They are locked in a dispute over compensation with the company building the wind farm – they say they were never properly consulted before the building got underway.

Ingrid Inga, president of the Sámi Parliament, says this is just the latest chapter in a longstanding struggle between Sámi reindeer herders and industrial interests.

“We’re not against wind power – but we are against big wind farms like Markbydgen because they affect the reindeer business – the local Sámi herders will lose about a quarter of their winter grazing land. That’s really reprehensible from our point of view,” she said.

Inger says that Sámi herding communities should be consulted before giant wind farms are built, which she says did not happen in Markbygden.

She explains that reindeer herders need to move their herds between seasonal grazing lands – often across long distances – during the year. But increasing demands on the land from other economic interests is making that more and more difficult, and is leading to the closure of traditional Sámi businesses.

National interest versus Sámi rights

“The government can take over land earmarked for reindeer grazing – if it’s in the national interest. You have mining, hydro power, forestry and now wind power – each of them competing for land used by Sámi herders – and it all adds up.

Svevind, the company building the windfarm say that they have consulted the Sámi and that they are willing to pay appropriate compensation.

But Sámi grievances run deep – there is a long history in the region of what is perceived as land-grabbing by government and industrial interest, explained Patrick Lantto, an historian at the Centre for Sámi Research in Umeå.

Although the Sámi are protected by a law which gives them the right to grazing lands across vast stretched of the north of the country, Lantto says its does not add up to much in practice as it’s next to impossible for herders to prove they have been using the land.

And despite some recent court rulings in their favour, it would seem that the odds are against them.

“There’s a strong sentiment that reindeer husbandry could prevent development in the north,” he said.

“In a recent case the environmental court clearly stated that Sweden has a goal of increasing it’s percentage of renewable energy and this is a goal which ways more heavily than protecting the rights of reindeer herders.”

Source: Sveriges Radio

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 northernmost mountain Sami village in Västerbotten.

This story has been getting some coverage in the Swedish Sami media, most recently with this  story,  where it was reported that the Grans Sameby wanted  Blackstone to pay them 1.5 million SEK (215,000 USD) for the additional work and feed for reindeer because now Sami had to keep animals in enclosures and feed them artificially instead of free-grazing. Village leader, Tobias Jonsson says that they had several meetings with Blackstone, only when the company applied for exploration permits for areas Vindelvaggen 1-4, and Umeå lake. Then they had several consultations on the work plans, but the mining company Blackstone has been unwilling to listen to the Sami village’s views.

The Sami population disclosed higher mean values for both depression and anxiety than the reference groups, with Sami men reporting the highest rates. Work-related stress was associated with anxiety and depression in the Sami group and the study concluded that by comparing Sami men and women with reference groups of men and women living in urban and rural areas in northern Sweden, this study identified that reindeer-herding Sami men require special attention with regard to mental health problems.

(Int J Circumpolar Health, Published online 18.08.2010)

In their complaint the Saami Council argue that the project is socially unsustainable and in breach of Saami rights.

The Swedish government has granted planning permission for the world’s largest land based wind power park to be built in the municipality of Piteå, Sweden, where the Saami community of Östra Kikkejaur have their winter reindeer herding pastures. The wind power park will consist of over 1000 wind turbines, an 800 km road, and extensive infrastructure, which means that reindeer herding in the area will be severely restricted.

”The Swedish state has admitted that the project will destroy at least 25% of the Saami community’s winter reindeer herding pastures, but the state has argued that renewable energy is more important than Saami rights. The financier of the project’s first phase, the German bank KfW IPEX-Bank, has defended their investment by referring to the Swedish state’s approval of the project. But the state planning permission, and thereby KfW IPEX-Bank’s financing,  are in breach of international law because Saami rights are not being respected”, says Mattias Åhrén, president for the Saami Council.

Download the Press Release 1004 Press release Markbygden

Download the Letter of Noticification to the Bank KfW IPEX 1004 Markbygden OECD

Text of the full press release below

German bank finances giant wind power project in breach of Saami rights

Saami Council has today lodged a complaint over the German KfW IPEX-Bank’s financing of a giant wind power project on Saami reindeer herding territories. The wind power project risks making reindeer herding unviable in the area and is therefore in breach of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. In their complaint the Saami Council argue that the project is socially unsustainable and in breach of Saami rights.

The Swedish government has granted planning permission for the world’s largest land based wind power park to be built in the municipality of Piteå, Sweden, where the Saami community of Östra Kikkejaur have their winter reindeer herding pastures. The wind power park will consist of over 1000 wind turbines, an 800 km road, and extensive infrastructure, which means that reindeer herding in the area will be severely restricted.

”The Swedish state has admitted that the project will destroy at least 25% of the Saami community’s winter reindeer herding pastures, but the state has argued that renewable energy is more important than Saami rights. The financier of the project’s first phase, the German bank KfW IPEX-Bank, has defended their investment by referring to the Swedish state’s approval of the project. But the state planning permission, and thereby KfW IPEX-Bank’s financing,  are in breach of international law because Saami rights are not being respected”, says Mattias Åhrén, president for the Saami Council.

The Saami community has been in contact with the German bank, KfW IPEX-Bank, and highlighted the fact that the bank’s financing of the project is not in line with the bank’s commitments regarding human rights, indigenous rights, and environmental sustainability. The Saami community has also requested a meeting with the bank, but the bank has ignored the community’s request. In their communication with the community KfW IPEX-Bank claim that the bank’s commitments do not apply to projects in OECD countries, and therefore are not relevant to Sweden. The bank argues that they follow Swedish law and the decisions of Swedish public authorities, and that this is guarantee enough that Saami rights are respected.

”The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises apply of course to projects in all countries, and Sweden is no exception. We look forward to a dialog with the German government regarding KfW IPEX-Bank’s investment in this controversial project. It is a myth that Sweden respects human rights”, says Mattias Åhrén, president for the Saami Council.

Sweden has received repeated and harsh international critique from the UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the UN Human Rights Committee because Sweden breaches Saami land rights by not regulating resource development activities on traditional Saami lands and does not give Saami communities the opportunity for effective participation in decisions that affect them.

Contact: Mattias Åhrén, President, Saami Council +47 47 37 91 61

Between 2-400 reindeer have drowned in a river near Jokkmokk in northern Sweden after thin surface ice cracked while the herd were moving to their winter pastures.

Reindeer herders in the region were taking around 3,000 animals across the river, a route that has been safely crossed on previous occasions.

”The ice suddenly gave way and hundreds of reindeer fell into the water,” said Bertil Kielatis, chairman of the Sirges Sami village in Jokkmokk.

”Now we are working to recover the animals that have drowned,” he added.

Sirges is Sweden’s largest Sami village with around 300 members and 90 herders.

The incident means a substantial financial loss for the herders and disaster for the local community.

”It’s a tragedy in many ways,” Kielatis added. ”Not only for the reindeer that suffered but for the herders who were helpless to save their animals.”

The reindeer were lead by herders who drove snow-mobiles and were assisted by a helicopter.

Kielatis added there was nothing unusual about the route or the way the herding was carried out.

”This is how we usually work nowadays when leading a large herd up or down from the mountains,” he said.

Source> The Local, NRK Sami Radio, Sveriges Radio

Preliminary results from Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences (SLU) by researcher Birgitta Åhman show there is a relationship between female reindeer condition, the weight of calves and calf survival. “This can help the herders in their choice of which reindeer should remain in the herd,” she says.

“Our tests confirm that the condition of female reindeer is relevant to what their calf weighs and also the calf survival. We see that calves that will be back in the fall are those that are larger in the summer,” says researcher Birgitta Åhman at SLU. ”

“We look at the reindeer’s condition and how it varies over the year and between years, and then we try to link it to management, to pasture conditions and possible disruption.”

Reindeer herders write journals to Birgitta Åhman who then sees how reindeer herding is done, when they have been to different areas, how pasture conditions are and what routes they moved. The studied reindeer are individually marked.

Birgitta Åhman says that her research can have significant benefits for herders.
“Among other things, they can choose which ones to remain in the herd. Reindeer weighing under a certain weight in the year is not so productive.”

www.sr.se/sameradion

- 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 Carl Bildt visited Kirkenes before they got on a bus to Murmansk. Sweden will during the Ministerial meeting of the Barents Council on Thursday take over the chairmanship for the Barents Cooperation after Russia.

In addition, Aleksei Miller, chair of Gazprom, noted that extensive efforts would be made to support social development in this remote corner of Russia, which is of interest given GAZPROMs activities in areas of reindeer husbandry.

Støre wants greater European involvement in the regional northern cooperation bodies, because Norway sees a holistic development of the North and the Arctic.

- Both Norway and Sweden are keen to get a better synergy of collaborative projects that go across borders in the north, as in the Arctic Council, the Barents Cooperation and the Baltic Sea Cooperation.

The Barents cooperation meeting coincides with the biggest business conference ever in Murmansk. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov opens Murmansk Economic Forum together with André Arthur Tsjilingarov who became world famous when he planted the Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole.

Lavrov said in a statement before the forum that the Arctic is part of Russia.

- We are convinced that the Arctic in the future will be a region characterized by peace, stability and cooperation. This is all the Arctic countries’ profits, especially through the cooperation of key organizations such as the Arctic Council and Barents cooperation, “said Lavrov.

www.nrk.no/nyheter

The background to the negotiations is that the 1972 Reindeer Grazing Convention expired in 2005 and had to be replaced with a new one. The new Convention contains seven chapters with 34 articles in which the main provisions of reindeer herding over the border are stated.

The Convention will after the signing be sent to concerned parties for a referral and enters into force once it is ratified by both countries, which requires a decision of the Parliaments in both Sweden and Norway. The Convention shall be in force for 30 years, with renewal of ten-year periods unless terminated.

(www.regeringen.se)