Kautokeino Kommune

BackgroundReindeer herding in Norway is based on traditional Sámi pastoralism with the animals free ranging throughout the year. The animals move over large areas in varying terrain and often in challenging weather conditions. Winter crises, such as difficult grazing conditions caused by icing or large amounts of snow, are survival bottlenecks for reindeer. Calves are especially vulnerable, and many may die from starvation during winter crises. Predation and starvation are the predominant narratives to explain losses, however, carcasses are difficult to find and often little remains after scavenging and decay. Documentation of the causes of death is therefore scarce.ResultsIn this study, we investigated the cause of reindeer mortality in Troms and Finnmark, Nordland and Trøndelag during 2017–2019. Necropsies (n = 125) and organ investigation (n = 13) were performed to document cause of death. Body condition was evaluated using visual fat score and bone marrow fat index. A wide range of causes of death was detected. The diagnoses were categorized into the following main categories: predation (n = 40), emaciation (n = 35), infectious disease (n = 20), trauma (n = 11), feeding related disease (n = 5), neoplasia (n = 4), others (n = 6) and unknown (n = 17). Co-morbidities were seen in a number of diagnoses (n = 16). Reindeer herders are entitled to economic compensation for reindeer killed by endangered predators, but a lack of documentation leads to a gap between the amount of compensation requested and what is awarded. An important finding of our study was that predators, during winter, killed animals in good as well as poor body condition. Emaciation was also shown to be associated with infectious diseases, and not only attributable to winter grazing conditions.ConclusionsThis study highlights the importance of examining dead reindeer to gain knowledge about why they die on winter pasture. The work presented herein also shows the feasibility and value of increased documentation of reindeer losses during winter.

A recent article in Pastoralism (Stien et al., Pastoralism 11:1-7, 2021) criticized our earlier analysis of the management models used for reindeer pastoralism in Western Finnmark, Norway (Marin et al., Pastoralism 10:1-8, 2020). According to our critics, we misunderstood the origin of the current emphasis on maximum reindeer numbers and densities. Second, we came to the (wrong) conclusion “that densities are of minor importance for reindeer productivity” because we had made several mistakes in our statistical analyses.This article discusses the main points we were criticized for, shows where disagreements persist and suggests some possible ways forward. We hope this discussion will help make clearer what we did in our original article and why we still think a focus on density (and implicitly maximum reindeer numbers) is not a good management tool in Western Finnmark. We also show that the influential report from 2001 by Ims and Kosmo was based on controversial interpretations of “quality objectives” for carcass weights as the starting point for their calculations of maximum number of reindeer for each district. In addition, we document some of the reactions from herders to that report and how the choice of districts included in such analyses can lead to different results and conclusions. We re-did our calculations of how much of the variation in the carcass weights of 1.5-year-old bucks (varit) can be explained by the number of reindeer in the spring herd (expressed as density of reindeer over the area of the summer district). The combined results of the two research teams show that between 35 and 46% of the variation can be explained by the density of reindeer, depending on the method, which is much less than the 70% that was found in 2001. Specifically, we show that the difference between our results (35% explained by density) and those of our critics (46% explained by density) is mainly because our critics have included 3 districts from Eastern Finnmark (Karasjok districts) in their analysis, but that there is no obvious reason to include these. We emphasize that research of this kind should think carefully about and report precisely the geographical scale at which the analysis is made and the reasons for this choice. Finally, we show that there is a need to report the views of reindeer herders in a more nuanced and precise way, to reflect variations among them, and to better explain their views.Our conclusion is still that the density of reindeer herds should not be used as the most important indicator for how well the herds are doing or for how sustainable reindeer pastoralism is in Western Finnmark. This is because other complex environmental and social factors also play a very important role, which needs to be better understood. Because of this, we argue for reindeer herders’ knowledge to be given more practical influence in the management plans.(Fuomáš ahte lea sámegielat čoahkkáigeassu artihkkala loahpas—geahča Additional file 1 /The article includes a summary in North Sámi language—see Additional file 1).

Abstract Reindeer herding is a complex, highly mobile, and environmentally adaptive form of livestock management, and a traditional way of life, practiced by indigenous peoples across the circumpolar Arctic. Given its distinctive characteristics, appropriate economic governance and regulation of the practice demands a clear understanding of its social, cultural, and environmental characteristics. In the following, we outline some of these and discuss their implications for economic management of the practice, with reference to the case of Norway in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In closing, we identify some key current threats and challenges that confront reindeer herding and present some suggestions for enhancing its economic viability and resilience, based on a strategy of revitalizing core economic and social mechanisms.

Abstract Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Nenets AO) in Russia and Western Finnmark in Norway are two large reindeer husbandry regions in the circumpolar North. The Soviet Union pioneered the industrialization and collectivization of reindeer husbandry in Nenets AO in the 1930s, while structural and rational practices of Sámi pastoralism in Western Finnmark started in the 1970s. Both regions aimed to increase meat production by manipulating the herd size and structure, seasonal calf slaughtering, changing reindeer ownership, and introducing novel labor standards such as shift working, housing programs, and mobile cabins for the herders. Experimental science of rational reindeer husbandry in the Soviet Union might have inspired reforms and a new model for reindeer husbandry established in Norway in 1976. This paper analyzes trends in reindeer husbandry in Nenets AO and Western Finnmark in light of these structural changes. An increase followed the expanded proportions of females during these periods of change in the total number of reindeer in both regions. However, we observed significant differences between trends in reindeer husbandry in Nenets AO and Western Finnmark. We conclude that while Norway implemented an adjusted version of the Soviet model with as much as 90–95% females in the herd and started slaughtering calves instead of adult females and 1.5 years old males, Soviet structural and rational practices never encompassed more than 65% females. Before this reform, 45% of the herd in Norway were traditionally females. Trend analyses in Western Finnmark and Nenets AO indicate that Norway’s extreme implementation of the new reindeer husbandry model increased the variability of calf production in Western Finnmark compared to calf production in Nenets AO. Despite Norwegian subsidies and policies encouraging high female percentages, a regression analysis based on data from 1981–2018 showed a negative correlation between the percentage of productive females and calf productivity in Western Finnmark. The rationale for the change in the management model in Norway in the 1970s was based on the assumption that reindeer herders in the North did not fully utilize the potential of the favorable climate conditions in Finnmark. However, in the past years, winters in Western Finnmark have changed. Increased winter air temperatures and changing snow conditions affect female reindeer. We conclude that Norway’s modernization program for Sámi reindeer husbandry in Western Finnmark resulted in a highly volatile production of reindeer calves that negatively affected reindeer herders’ food security and herding economy. The top-down productivity policy model for reindeer husbandry in Norway was weakly nested within Sámi herders’ traditional cultures and knowledge.

Abstract Of the 158 million things housed by the Smithsonian Institution, about 56 objects originate from Sámi communities. By all accounts a small group of objects—even by the standards of the Arctic collections at the Institution—it may be easily overlooked or dismissed as insignificant, based on entrenched ideologies about idealized collections. Presenting a community‐based methodology for the engagement of distant museum collections using three‐dimensional technologies, this article establishes the latent potential of small collections for Indigenous communities. We demonstrate how a group of 56 objects not only chronicles complex histories of exchange and colonialism, but also provides a manageable conduit for learning and exchange to facilitate the continued restructuring of relationships between museums and descendent stakeholders, from the individual to community level. Small collections, far from incomplete, may not only contain materials significant to descendent groups on their own terms, but provide the grounds to generate new forms of Indigenous initiated, balanced reciprocity.

Abstract A safe operating space for Indigenous reindeer herders in the Circumpolar North must be the main priority for the governance of the Arctic and sub-Arctic territories in times of rapid changes on reindeer pastures. It also includes establishing reindeer herders’ adaptive capacity to these changes. Anthropogenic impact on the earth system has reached a scale where it is no longer possible to exclude abrupt global environmental change. Indigenous reindeer herders’ sustainability implies adaptive capacity that allows reindeer herders to operate safely. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights that the protection of grazing lands represents the most important adaptive strategy for reindeer herders under climate change. While the Arctic is rapidly integrating into the global economy, reindeer herders must face multiple socio-economic conditions and effects of assimilation past and present. This chapter addresses adaptation perspectives important for the future of reindeer husbandry and frames adaptation to rapid change for reindeer husbandry via Indigenous perspectives, insights, and knowledge.

What is topical in indigenous research is to view ethical guidelines and principles from their own premises and discuss the control over research activities and research findings when it comes to various disciplines and methods. The article is based on an ethnographic study that was focused on the Sami classroom culture in Norway. The purpose of this article is to discuss those common, special ethical viewpoints that a researcher has to take into consideration when conducting Sami educational and schooling research. The focus is on the following questions: how to secure the Sami’s position and voices in the research of Sami pedagogy and education in a way that is just, valuable, and good-producing and does not harm members of indigenous peoples or have a malign influence on the phenomenon studied. This study encourages implementing child research and helps researchers to notice ethical challenges in the various phases of indigenous education research.