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| Inari Sami Reindeer Herding Cyber Action |
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Please note that the Inari Sami Cyber Action has ended.
Who is involved?
The Sami reindeer herders of Inari. The Sami are the only indigenous people of Europe.
Metsähallitus is the Finnish state forestry enterprise. In Inari, the state owns over 91% of the land area.
The State of Finland. According to national and international legislation the responsibility of preserving the prerequisites of profitable reindeer herding of the Sami belongs to the Finnish State.
Where is Inari?
Inari is located in Lapland, the extreme north of Finland, on the northernmost edge of pine forest. It is the biggest and second northernmost municipality in Finland, and a part of the home area of the Sami. Map (Greenpeace)
What is reindeer herding?
Reindeer herding is the most important traditional livelihood for the Sami people, and continues to be today. The area of Inari municipality is divided to eight reindeer herding co-operatives. Altogether there was a total of 38 000 reindeer in the herding year 2001-2002 in Inari. Sami reindeer herding is based on free grazing and natural pastures in forests and fells. Read more at Reindeer herding in Inari.
Click on pictures to enlarge!
  
What is the issue?
In five reindeer herding co-operatives and one sub-unit of Inari reindeer herders feel they are competing for use of land with Metsähallitus, who has a dual role as both the responsible authority and a land user. So far Metsähallitus and the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry have been avoiding the responsibility of safeguarding the prerequisities of Sami reindeer herding behind each others backs.
Therefore, reindeer herders are calling upon the Finnish State to resolve the land-use competition issue and serve the rights of the Sami people by supporting free grazing reindeer herding, specifically by halting forestry operations in the areas that herders defined as important grazing forests and mapped in spring 2002.
Why is this issue so important?
The Finnish government is legislated to protect and support Sami reindeer herding activities in Finland. However, while one hand is shaking the hand of reindeer herding in support, the other is holding a chainsaw cutting down forests vital to sustain reindeer herding. Before the completion of revisions to a Natural Resource Plan Metsähallitus is still logging in Inari according to its original plans, and the important grazing forests are diminishing all the time.
When?
Now!! The Sami reindeer herders of Inari need you to send the letter below to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to raise concern about this land-use conflict issue. In 2002 representatives of four Sami reindeer herding co-operatives and one sub-unit went to Helsinki to bring their message to Finnish ministers. Of this action, the Minister for Agriculture and Forestry started a process to review the Natural Resource Plan for Upper Lapland. The process is taking time, and if it is carried out the way it was in 1999-2000, it does not fulfil the rights of the Sami reindeer herding as an especially safeguarded livelihood. Read more below in 'Words from Inari' and Reindeer herding in Inari.
Words from Inari
The world has gotten smaller in the last decades. The earth has become one global village in which all corners can be easily reached. Any solvent organisation can use any natural resources anywhere in the world.  This shows also in Inari. Our "empty", pathless and uninhabited "wilderness" has more and more other users than reindeer. Preserving the area and quality of reindeer pastures is no longer a question of adaptation but of survival, because also the reindeer and their herders belong to global village where self-sufficiency no more is enough and money is needed in order to survive and to be a member of the society.
Presenting these views in local level negotiations with Metsähallitus had not affected the fact that the forest area useable for reindeer herding is constantly diminishing because of logging.The reindeer herding co-operatives of Inari started publicizing their comments about the harmful effects of forestry on reindeer herding together in spring 2002. The herding co-operatives of Hammastunturi, Muddusjärvi, Muotkatunturi and Paatsjoki, as well as the Nellim herd group from the Ivalo co-operative, sent their representatives to Helsinki to bring the message personally to the ministers.
The paper they took to ministers proposes that future loggings on state land would be directed to forest areas that have been used for forestry before, instead of old growth forests and other important grazing forests. Instrumentally the financial objectives of Metsähallitus would need to be lowered so that this exclusion is possible.
From those propositions, the minister for agriculture and forestry started a process to review the Natural Resource Plan for Upper Lapland, ahead of the  original schedule by Metsähallitus. Before the completion of the new Natural Resource Plan Metsähallitus has been and still is logging in Inari according to its original plans. Of the areas identified by the co-operatives and the Nellim herd group to be left outside forestry measures, Metsähallitus has been logging at least in Nellim, Kessi (Paatsjoki co-operative's area), Kirakka (Hammastunturi co-operative's area) and Paadarskaidi (Muotkatunturi co-operative's area).
Background on Reindeer Herding
Reindeer herding is the most significant foundation of Sami culture. The basic elements of reindeer husbandry are the reindeer, nature and humans. The reindeer are out in the wild for the whole year. The life of the reindeer,  the schedule of the herder, the working methods and income are all defined by the seasons and weather. Still, reindeer husbandry is not a wild or uncontrolled activity, but is regulated with the Finnish law and EU directives in the way agriculture is. The difference from agriculture is that reindeer owners do not own the land on which the reindeer graze. This is a great right, but it can cause a hazard. The grazing grounds have other users and other forms of land use can impede reindeer herding.
More at:
Reindeer herding in Inari.
TRN's Fact Sheet:
Text by: Outi Jääskö
Edited by Damien Lee, TRN |
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