Felling in Finnish Lapland seen as threat to Sámi culture and identity

Ahtisaari proposed as mediator in forest dispute in Northern Lapland

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Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari has been proposed as a possible mediator in a deadlocked dispute over the use of forests in northernmost Finnish Lapland.
      “One option would be that a mediation body for environmental disputes would be linked with an existing organisation, such as the office of the National Conciliator. Ahtisaari would be suitable as a mediator”, says special researcher Mikko Hyppönen of the Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA).
      Hyppönen has headed a five-year study on the sustainable use of forests in the north of Finnish Lapland. The results of the study were put forward in Saariselkä on Thursday. The study calls for the accommodation of Sámi culture with reindeer herding and forestry.
     
Disputes have continued for years. Currently a case involving three reindeer herders of the Sámi, or Lapp, community is in the courts.
      Reindeer herders want felling to stop in an area of 37,000 hectares in the Nellim area.
      Felling reduces the amount of the lichen that reindeer eat, and the traditional livelihood of the Sámi involving raising reindeer in natural grazing lands. In southern and central areas of the reindeer herding zone, herders have had to resort to widespread artificial feeding.
     
The Lapland District Court rejected an appeal by reindeer herders in August.
      The UN Committee on Human Rights has ordered a moratorium on felling, saying that it threatens the culture and identity of the Sámi. A key question is how forests can be used by industry and still be able to sustain reindeer.
      “In Arvidsjaur in the north of Sweden, forestry maps over the past 100 years have been examined. Forestry based on clear-cutting, which took hold after the war, is estimated to have reduced lichen growth by between 30 and 50 per cent. There is no indication in Finland that felling would increase lichen growth - in fact, the opposite is true”, says special researcher Timo Helle.
      “If felling is allowed to continue in the north of Lapland at the present rate (115,000 cubic metres of wood a year), forestry will bring the local economy EUR 410 million over 15 years”, says researcher Anssi Ahtikoski.
     
If the environmentalists get their way, forests over 140 years old would be left untouched. This would drop the yield from forestry to EUR 250 million. During the same period, reindeer herders would experience growth in earnings of EUR 7 million.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Sápmi - a pale blue winter´s dream in the far north (17.1.2009)

Links:
  Sámi People (Wikipedia)

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