Abstract

Until recently lack of overview and understanding of the land use pattern of reindeer herding has lead to unnecessary conflict with other land users such as the forest, mining, and tourist industry. In search of a solution, methods to produce land use plans for reindeer husbandry, (in Swedish Renbruksplan (RBP)) have been developed in Vilhelmina Norra and Malå Sami villages in the county of Västerbotten in northern Sweden. The project participants from the Sami villages as well as the Regional Forestry Board (SVS) and the County Administrative Board have been part of defining the goals of the project since its initiation. The production of RBP represents a user oriented effort, largely dependent on the work carried out by the members of each Sami village. This included a digital compilation of ecological and landscape information concerning the reindeer’s use of habitat, based on the knowledge of the local expert. The compilation of information is based on satellite image interpretation, on-screen digitizing, and field work. Information from several parallel ongoing processes will be compiled in the final RBP. The ultimate goal is that RBP will contribute to increased knowledge and understanding between different resource users and thereby reduce conflict Two specific goals of the RBP for the Sami villages are that they should provide information that will facilitate in land use consultation between the Sami village and other land users. Additionally, the RBP should facilitate in planning of the operational reindeer management for the Sami village. For the SVS, RBP should provide support in consultation between different land users and provide support for follow up and control for the Forestry Act. The experiences from the project have been very positive, where the participants have been both engaged and enthusiastic in their work. Remote sensing supported mapping and inventory efforts have proven both efficient and practical. Because the end-users have worked actively during the whole project phase both by building up the database based on their knowledge and by doing data collection in the field the participants knowledge about and believes in the products is strong. This is very important as to how the final RBP will be used in the future. Already RBP have been in operational use both by the participating Sami villages together with involved forest companies and by the SVS. Having RBP developed has increased the knowledge and understanding between the reindeer industry and forest owners and shown great potential to reduce conflict. To facilitate in future land use discussions between Sami villages and forest owners there is clear need for the type of information existing in a RBP. Work will continue in the coming year with development of RBP in additional four Sami villages

Published in

Conference

RESE Scientific Conference

SLU Authors

• Sandström, Per

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Sámi and reindeer husbandry related research


UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Forest Science


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/1992