Reindeer Blog

Al Jazeera is not the first network that springs to mind when thinking of reindeer, but this is an excellent overview of the threats faced by reindeer herding Sami in Sweden, and these are the same threats that reindeer herders and other indigenous peoples practicing traditional livelihoods face elsewhere. You can watch the video here [...]

(Photo J.E. Kalvemo, NRK) The Bessaker wind power station in the Fosen region in the southernmost parts of reindeer husbandry in Norway has just opened and was visited by reindeer herders from Norway and Sweden (in Jamtland and Trondelag) who fear the impact that it will have (there are plans for large expansion) on reindeer [...]

Although on paper, Sami reindeer herders have a statutory right to graze their reindeer over half the surface of Sweden, in practice, industrial activities such as mining, hydropower, logging, infrastructure and the new kid on the block, windpower development culminate in a progressive loss and fragmentation of pastures.
There are now 14 wind power parks planned [...]

(Pic-Philip Burgess). With the coming of summer and the migration of reindeer from Finnmarks’s interior to the coast, the local media has lately been filled with stories about the reinplagen. This translates as ‘reindeer plague’, a disease which sounds deadly, but so far, only reindeer have died as a result. It relates to reindeer grazing in urban and agricultural areas [...]

(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 [...]

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. [...]

(Pic Svein Mathiesen, oil and gas installation, Nenets Autonomous Okrug)
Story From НГ-Регионы. В последние годы в связи с активной разработкой недр полуострова Ямал коренные жители региона – ненцы и ханты – оказались в крайне тяжелом положении. Отчаявшись добиться справедливости в Ямало-Ненецком автономном округе, северяне написали письмо президенту России Дмитрию Медведеву. Под посланием были собраны сотни [...]

(Pic: Vartland) While many people would love to have reindeer gambolling through their village, it has long been a bone of contention in Hammerfest. Each summer, the reindeer migrate from Kautokeino /Guovdageaidnu in inner Finnmark to the island of Kvaloya, where Hammerfest is. Residents are tired of their flower beds being munched by reindeer and [...]

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 [...]

Predation is a serious problem for reindeer herders in the spring and early summer after calving season, as young calves are particularly vulnerable to predation. Kristian Jåma, a Sami reindeer herder from Sør-Fosen in Sør-Trøndelag region said to NRK Sami Radio that he feels that his claims about predation loss are not believed. In a [...]