Arctic Peoples

By Clive Tesar

Saami in Sweden are demanding that the Swedish government improve protection for traditional Saami reindeer herding territories. The Saami are making the demand in the face of increasing pressures on traditional Saami lands for mining and wind-power developments.

We are at a crisis point in Saami areas whereby the last unexploited Saami areas are being claimed by a mining and wind-power boom,

says Malin Brännström, lawyer for the Swedish Saami Association.

The state has a responsibility to ensure that Saami rights are protected. But the state is currently making it easier and easier for resource projects to go ahead, with no consideration being given to the impacts on traditional Saami livelihoods, such as reindeer herding.

The Saami are singling out Blackstone Ventures, a Canadian-based company with a variety of nickel exploration projects scattered through Scandinavia.

This is a Canadian exploration company that claims to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada,

notes Mattias Åhrén, Head of Human Rights at the Saami Council "> Saami Council .

At the same time, the company seems to have no problem with performing intrusive exploration activities in sensitive Saami reindeer herding areas in Swedish nature reserves.

In Finland, local Saami facing similar challenges launched a campaign against a logging company that included taking their case to investors and filing a complaint with the United Nations. The Saami in Sweden say they may be compelled to launch similar campaigns against companies working in the Saami areas of Sweden, unless Saami rights are respected by developers.

The Saami are working to gain recognition of their rights to traditional lands, and to control over what development takes place on those lands. Saami traditional lands collectively known as ‘Sapmi’ (land of the Saami) are in the northern parts of Sweden, Norway and Finland, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia.