Reindeer Blog

(Visualisation of proposed wind power megaproject from Vernfosen)

Reindeer herders in the South Sami regions in Norway fear for their future, in a story from yesterdays NRK Sami Radio. Reindeer herder Terje Haugen is the head of the Fosen reindeer husbandry district (North of Trondheim). Much of his time over the last few years has been taken up with struggling against wind power development on his districts winter pastures, most particularly Fosenhalvøya. A seminar on South Sami rights is being held in Trøndelag this week and this issue has been high on the agenda. Hauge feels that legislation and current Sami rights do not protect their livelihood.

Large areas around each windmill will be developed, and roads are constructed between each windmill. When all this is combined, a lot of pastures disappear.

A campaign has been launched to protest against the megaproject, with an online petition.

The annual NBR NRL meeting is now over and Nils Henrik Sara from Guovdageaidnu has been reelected as leader. He has a lot of serious issues to preside over - two that were in the media this weekend were the enormous increase in wind power development plans and another being the gender balance on the board.

Arvid Jåma, a reindeer herder in the southern Sami area of Fosen, Trondelag, where NVE plan to develop an enormous wind park supplying 4038 MW, said

I see no option but to quit reindeer herding if Fosen is developed into a windmill park. Read the rest of this entry »

The annual meeting of the Sami Reindeer Herders Association of Norway has started in the southern reindeer husbandry area of Trondelag. The theme of the opening day has been mental health issues for reindeer herders, an issue that is generally overlooked, accoridng to Nils Henrik Sara, NBR leader in a  report today in NRK Sami Radio. Nils Chris Danielsen , an elder herder spoke clearly and eloquently about the issues facing reindeer herders in the region, as he has seen it over the last six decades,

The whole world’s elite now come to the area. They come to areas (to ski) which we depend on in the summer. The reindeer need these areas for cooling in the summer, but the animals can no longer go there because of the skiing events. Interference is increasing. One can say that this also creates psychological problems for us,

 Danielson went on to talk about the other challenges that herders face in the area,

It is important to mobilise against the construction of windmills. Moreover, the expansion of cabin building creates problems for, among other things, migration. Those who have cabins will also be hunting in these areas. This creates problems for us with dogs who will run for anything at a time when the reindeer are to have peace. In addition, power lines are criss crossing the pastures.

If these issues were not addressed, reindeer could no longer thrive, said Danielson, and without reindeer, the Sami culture could not survive.

Wind power is blowing its way across the windy parts of Europe - such as Sweden, Norway and Scotland. A major seminar in Scotland recently was attended by municipal leaders from Östersund, who were interested in learning how Scots had dealt with mega project windfarm development. At present there are only small scale wind farms in Sweden with fewer than seven turbines, however, a 100 turbine development is being proposed for a former military base. The impacts on reindeer pastures of such developments are known to be negative.