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Arctic Yearbook 2014
several cases have had to move to other grazing sites and alter their herding practises. Loss of
pasturelands for other land use activities such as mining, oil and gas extraction, and large-scale
forestry is a problem for reindeer husbandry. In Fennoscandia reindeer herding is connected to Sámi
culture and in Norway and Sweden practiced exclusively (with minor exceptions) by the Sámi.
Lack of Trust
There have been continuing conflicts in the 1990s and first decade of the millennium between
reindeer herding and the state forestry enterprise Metsähallitus in northern Finland. Metsähallitus is
a governmental organization responsible for earning profits from renewable natural resources like
forests but also nature protection and nature heritage. Metsähallitus is also obliged by law to respect
social and cultural aspects like maintaining job opportunities and Sámi people’s rights when using
and managing state land and waters. Part of the natural resource management is participatory
planning processes, which are not legally obligatory, but voluntarily organized by Metsähallitus to
enhance multiple uses of state commercial forests and waters. Reindeer herders have been trying to
get their voices heard in these participatory planning processes, but have often been disappointed by
the outcomes of these processes. As a result, reindeer herders have sometimes established coalitions
with environmental NGOs and local tourism entrepreneurs to halt loggings in important reindeer
pastures, and arranged on-site protests, initiated media campaigns against loggings, and informed
forest companies from unjust logging practices. The case even reached the UN Human Rights
Committee to defend herders’ rights to practice their culture (i.e. reindeer herding). This has resulted
in a mutual lack of trust as well as created a situation where each side pushes their agenda and
middle ground options, and compromises are not seen as satisfactory. This undermines the potential
of c