Reindeer Blog

(Map showing extent of one claim in Kvalsund - Wega Mining) At a public meeting in Kvalsund, northern Norway, a full frontal attack on reindeer husbandry was launched by one of the parliamentary representatives for Finnmark, Olav Gunnar Ballo. The meeting had been called to discuss the issue of mining in the region where the international mining company [...]

The Local, Sweden Two Sami reindeer herders were narrowly missed by a falling space rocket launched from the Esrange space station in northern Sweden in the beginning of April. Saarivuoma Sami village has demanded that safety be improved.”It was lucky that the rocket did not fall on our heads. Otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting here,” said [...]

A recent story from the ITAR-TASS newswire reminds one of the everyday dangers that reindeer herders face in Russia, and of course elsewhere, travelling as they do in remote and hazardous regions throughout the Arctic.
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, April 14 (Itar-Tass) - The body of one of five missing reindeer herders was found under snow debris in Kolyma’s [...]

Two Sami villages in northern Sweden have been denied compensation from the state-owned mining company LKAB for the time village representatives spent on planning for the relocation of Kiruna. The reindeer herding villages of Gaban and Leavas first turned to the government for money to make up for time spent tending to the relocation of [...]

(Pic AFP) A new President has been elected in Russia - and given the fact that most reindeer herders in Russia live in remote regions without roads, they are the first to vote, a fact that was much covered across the media. This story features an interview with a reindeer herder in the Nenets Autonomous [...]

(from Aftenposten) Reindeer herding in northern Norway is under constant threat from development that’s encroaching on grazing areas. Now state officials say they’ll heed warnings that reindeer operations will die out within 50 years.

“It’s a clear goal of this government to maintain today’s level of reindeer herding,” Ola T Heggem, state secretary in the Ministry [...]

Reindeer Luck is a TV series that is to premiere on NRK national TV next week. It follows the Eira family in Kautokeino, one of the largest herding families in the region,  on their reindeer migration, slaughter and earmarking and more besides. See more about the series here.