Russia Starts Census of Indigenous Peoples – Download and Listen to MP 3 (Source Voice of Russia)

(Video Bruce Forbes) The Arctic Centre of Finland is Finland’s national arctic research centre. Researchers at the Arctic Centre have been carrying out research on the Yamal Peninsula with Nenets reindeer herders for many years primarily under the theme of Global Change and Land use change. Videos and Photos from this years field work on Yamal, led by Dr. Bruce Forbes can be see here

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)

FAIRBANKS (AP) — For most hungry Alaskans, reindeer meat doesn’t represent much more than a spicy sausage link.

University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers want to know if there’s more potential for the state’s roughly 18,000 reindeer. A new market study is under way to see whether local consumers are interested in high-end cuts of reindeer, and to determine what they’re willing to pay for them.

Greg Finstad, the manager of UAF’s Reindeer Research Program, hopes to see a day when customers eagerly throw a petite reindeer steak on the grill.

“We’re trying to establish the connection — the business relationship between the retailer and consumer,” Finstad said.

UAF researchers began providing Home Grown Market with sides of reindeer last week to gauge demand for the product. The small Geraghty Avenue grocery, which specializes in locally grown foods, is offering reindeer steaks and ground meat.

The market study is expected to last for the next year. Throughout the process, Home Grown Market has agreed to open its books so UAF can determine the specific cost of selling the meat.

The reindeer isn’t cheap — steaks are selling for $25 per pound — but they offer a local product that’s been virtually impossible to find in the past.

Alaska’s reindeer has almost all gone toward sausage, and even the choice cuts went into the grinder. Because of that, reindeer herders on the Seward Peninsula have little concept of the worth of a good reindeer steak.

“They’re raising these reindeer, but they have no idea what their market value is,” Finstad said.

Home Grown Market owner Jeff Johnson said sales have been modest in the first week, although they’ve grown each day. Even so, Johnson said his reasons for participating in the market study aren’t purely financial.

“In my opinion, it’s not about making money — it’s about helping an entire industry,” Johnson said. “If we can get an entire industry going, all of us are going to benefit.”

Finstad said the Reindeer Research Program isn’t in a position to supply a large grocery store with meat, and that at this point it doesn’t want to.

He’s counting on a small store owner like Johnson to help provide customers with guidance on how to cook reindeer, which is an important step in promoting the meat.

“We need to educate the consumer,” he said. “You can’t do that with a large, impersonal grocery chain.”

Both Finstad and Johnson rave about the flavor of reindeer, but say preparation is key. Finstad said people often cook reindeer like they would beef, which almost always ends with disappointing results.

Johnson compared reindeer to lamb, with a rich, delicate flavor. He said a medium-rare preparation, with some grilled onions and minimal seasonings, seems to highlight it best.

Reindeer also is more affordable than it would initially appear, he said, since servings are petite steaks of 4 ounces or less.

“You’re buying this because it’s a unique flavor,” Johnson said. “It’s going to complement a good wine and some local veggies. It’s not a big piece of meat to be the main attraction.”

Finstad said reindeer is more nutritious than alternatives like beef, with high protein and low fat and cholesterol. He said it’s among the most tender meats available, and has a flavor that’s rich without tasting gamy.

The study requires a long-term commitment, Finstad said. He expects some customers will initially buy reindeer simply because it’s a novelty, but said it’s important to know if they’ll come back for more.

If the market study is a success, Finstad said the Reindeer Research Program wants to shift the supply chain to Seward Peninsula herders. He said there are no long-term plans for UAF to become a commercial supplier of reindeer meat.

“We want to work ourselves out of a job,” Finstad said.
Source – By Jeff Richardson Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

This will signal the first time that Yamal reindeer meat is imported to a country that already has a domestic reindeer meat industry.

Lapin Liha stated to the media that this was necessary as there was simply not enough reindeer meat supply in the market in Finland to meet their production goals of 40,000 reindeer per year. Currently they are processing around 24000 per year, 3000 of which come from Sweden.

Lapin Liha plan to import 200-250,000 kilos per year, all of which will come from the EU certified slaughterhouse in Yar-Sale, which was constructed by the Finnish company Kometos Oy.

Read the news release here on the Lapin Liha site.

The secret? The giant Markbygden wind farm — covering more than 500 square kilometres, or the equivalent of five times the size of Paris — is being built in a virtually uninhabited, desolate stretch of Sweden’s great north.

“If I were to try the same thing in Germany, it would take me 20 years to get everyone’s agreement,” Wolfgang Kropp, the German head of the project, told AFP.

Standing on the shores of the Baltic Sea at the Piteaa harbour near the wind park site, he added: “For the same area, you would have 10,000 land owners. Here there are three.

“That’s why we came here to Sweden in search of a good location,” he said.

“In the south of the country, it is very difficult. There are farms, and vacation homes. Here in the north, there is no one,” he said.

Kropp’s company Svevind, a client of German wind power giant Enercon, is leading the construction of the park, with 1,101 wind turbines scheduled to be built by 2022.

They should then produce energy equivalent to the production of two nuclear reactors.

The site stretches across a vast area covered with dense pine forests interspersed with scattered villages of just a handful of brightly painted wooden houses.

They are surrounded by silence broken only by the occasional car or a fighter jet from a neighbouring base screaming past on a training mission.

The giant wind park is widely popular here.

The main forestry, paper and metals industries in the region are facing new environmental and climate regulations requiring them to significantly shrink their carbon footprints by 2020.

That is something a change in energy dependence should help with.

“We want to turn this region into a new centre of green energy production,” said Robert Bergman of Solander Science Park, a scientific laboratory in Piteaa studying among other things the potential of wood and paper-based fuels.

The wind park project “is an obvious asset,” he added.

It is also viewed by many as a new source of income and an incentive for people to stay on in the surrounding, increasingly deserted villages.

Despite the sparse population around the park site, there are nevertheless some dissenting voices.

Most opposition comes from the indigenous Samis, who fear the towering turbines will heavily encroach on their reindeer grazing areas, already significantly hit by forestry and tourism in the area.

In late April, the local Sami council refused a compensation package of 5,000 kronor (520 euros, 630 dollars) per turbine and per year, or a total of more than five million kronor each year after the entire park has been built.

“We say no. The amount does not correspond to the problems that this will cause and the threat it poses to our herds,” Anders Ruth, who heads up the local council in Oestra Kikkejaure, said.

“The same number of reindeer will have to be fed in a much smaller area that will be much more developed,” she added.

“This will not work and it is not possible to find other grazing grounds.” About a quarter of the local Sami grazing areas would be affected by the park, Ruth said.

In an attempt to appease the criticism, the project developers have stressed they will not fence in the area, but some 600 kilometres of new roads through the dense forests will in any case dramatically shrink the area where the reindeer are free to roam.

Svevind says it understands the reindeer owners concerns, but that there is no better alternative location for the park.

“It’s true, the paper industry has already taken their forests, the dams have already taken their rivers, the mines have taken what’s underground. And now it’s the wind turbine,” said Mikael Kyrk, a Swedish Svevind executive.

“But at the same time, that’s the way development works.”

Finland’s rare wild forest reindeer may be facing total extinction, says the Finnish Hunters` Association. The group is calling for Finland and the EU to jointly protect the wild reindeer by further regulating the population of large predators.

Both she and the reindeer herding sector face great challenges, writes the daily Lapin Kansa:

“The challenges are not insurmountable because a Finn never leaves a reindeer in the lurch. Lapland wouldn’t be Lapland without reindeers.

The reindeer herding sector will continue to be important for the economy of the north, which serves not only its own people but because of rising tourism also a growing number of customers.

For the future it is vital that reindeers and reindeer meat continue to enjoy an excellent reputation. In a world of green values it’s good to stress that reindeers which grow up surrounded by clean nature leave behind smaller ecological footprints than other ruminants.”

Source – Baltic Review