Lapland: disputes over land and reindeer pit brother against brother

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By Mari Manninen
     
      A car moves along a winding, slippery road in the direction of the Russian border. It is 42 kilometres since leaving Ivalo, when the ice of Lake Inari appears on the left. Snowmobile tracks lead to the ice, and reindeer have trudged along the edge of the forest.
     We have arrived in Nellim
     An old woman goes down the village road in a kick-sled.
     Nellim has about 200 residents. The houses are scattered over a wide area. The Nili-Aitta can be seen. It is a store, and it also has a lunch bar.
     Three languages can be heard in the village - Finnish, Inari Sami, and Skolt Sami.
     It is not immediately apparent that Nellim is a place where the three most enduring disputes of northernmost Finnish Lapland converge: the conflict over the use of forests, disagreements over land ownership and the rights of the Sami people, and the dispute over reindeer husbandry. All of these are interlinked.
     For the same reason, human relations in Nellim are tied up in knots.
     
As a result, the Finnish state has been sent embarrassing inquiries from human rights observers of the United Nations. The disputes have also made forest companies, who are very concerned about their reputations, much more cautious when they buy wood from the region.
     The disputes pit the indigenous Sami against the state, reindeer husbandry against forestry, and members of the same reindeer herders' association against each other.
     It is also pitting the Paadar brothers - all Sami - against each other.
     Of the four brothers who live in and near Nellim, three earn their living raising reindeer. One of them is a woodsman. The reindeer herders are barely on speaking terms with the lumberjack brother.
     
The home of Kalevi Paadar is in the centre of Nellim, in an old shop. Above the door pieces of Lake Inari whitefish are hanging to dry.
     Two other brothers, Eero and Veijo Paadar, are visiting. Eero sits in a chair in the corner of the room, wearing a quilted jacket. Veijo sits at the end of the old sofa, and Kalevi is in the third corner of the room. A couple of reindeer men of like mind sit in the fourth corners. People in Lapland are accustomed to having plenty of space around them.
     Kalevi, 58, Eero, 60, and Veijo Paadar, 48, meet each other now and then. When they do they often talk about their common legal cases.
     Soon the third court case raised by the Paadars during the past three years against Metsähallitus, the state enterprise that administers state-owned land and water areas. The three oppose plans to cut trees in the nearby state-owned forests.
     The forest war flared up seriously three years ago in the winter, when a group of Greenpeace activists showed up in Nellim to defend the Paadars and other reindeer herders opposed to the felling.
     The arrival of Greenpeace led to a show that will not be forgotten soon in Nellim.
     
The environmental organisation set up a forest camp for a couple of weeks, and issued proclamations to the world about the plight of Sami reindeer husbandry.
     The wood cutters set up a camp of their own nearby, using chain saws and loud music to keep the environmentalists awake. Tensions between the two camps heightened to where they nearly came to blows.
     The dispute has left scars which continue to divide the villagers into two camps.
     
The forest war is yet to be resolved. The court cases pursued by the Paadars will look into whether or not the authorities can cut teres on state land in Nellim. So far Kalevi, Eero and Veijo Paadar have managed to keep the forest industry at bay.
     contrary to what is the case in some wood disputes in Finnish Lapland, the Nellim dispute is not about ancient forests, but rather about pine forests that have been used for timber over the decades.
     They are the same forests where the Paadars' reindeer graze.
     "That's enough cutting in this area", says Kalevi Paadar.
     Eero, the most talkative of the brothers, is not quite as categorical. "At least the method of felling needs to be changed, so that the reindeer can live, and so that bird hunters will be left with something."
     The Paadars feel that forestry has already pushed reindeer herding to the pain threshold. It is hard for reindeer to find anything to eat in the midst debris left over from the wood cutters, and the lichen that reindeer eat will not grow for several years in ground that is torn up by forestry machines.
     
"The forests have not recovered from the previous felling", Eero Paadar sighs.
     The men complain of a lack of the long lichen that grows on older trees, which also falls on top of snow. Reindeer eat it in the springtime, if the snow is too thick and hard for them to dig through with their hooves.
     When trees containing the moss are felled, the reindeer need to be fed hay during cold winters. The tradition in Sami regions is that wandering reindeer are expected to find their food in the wild. In more southerly parts of Finnish Lapland, it is more common to keep reindeer in pens, and to bring them feed.
     While the reindeer food is a major issue in the Paadars' court cases, the issue of the Sami ethnic identity is an even bigger one.
     The Paadars' case is based on the argument that the Paadars are members of the indigenous Sami, or Lapp people. Finnish law and international treaties guarantee the Sami the right to maintain their own culture. Herding reindeers is seen as part of the Sami cultural heritage.
     What is especially excruciating in the struggle of the Paadars is that their own brother is on the other side.
     
When the Sami forestry professionals of Nellim and the nearby areas made a counter-appeal against the ban on felling sought by the Paadar reindeer brothers, the first to sign was wood cutter Ari Paadar.
     "In Nellim there are a few woodsmen, a store, and a hotel. That is where the work is. Even the fish farm is closing down. One easily wonders where people are still working", says Ari Paadar, 51.
     He sits at the table of the restaurant of the Nellim Wilderness Hotel and eats salmon. It is local and the taste is simply divine.
     Forestry brings jobs. The forest industry in the whole of the northern part of Finnish Lapland employs about 200 people - the same as reindeer husbandry, and it is right around Nellim that Metsähallitus has its most important felling areas in the whole region.
     Tourism also brings jobs to the area.
     The walls of the restaurant of the hotel are lined with souvenirs: stuffed toy dogs, reindeer antler powder, hand-woven woollen socks.
     About 2,000 tourists stay at the hotel each year. The French and the British like to ski, ice fish, and listen to the stories of the Sami women. They also go on dog sled and snowmobile rides.
     The Wilderness Hotel is a familiar place for Ari Paadar. The building used to house the dormitory of the village school. That is where all of the Paadar brothers lived while they attended school. Their home was ten kilometres away.
     
The brothers were not allowed to speak Sami at school. This is a bitter memory for many Sami, but it did not bother Ari Paadar.
     "Father was Sami, mother was not. I am happy that we did not learn Sami at home. Otherwise, we would have had to learn Finnish when we came to school."
     Ari Paadar does not understand why his brothers are trying to defend reindeer husbandry as Sami culture.
     "If it were culture, the subsidy should come from the Cultural Foundation. There are two kinds of reindeer men - agricultural, and cultural."
     
The forest dispute also has the area's reindeer men pitted against each other. The Paadars are part of the Nellim group, which is part of the Ivalo reindeer herding area, with a Sami majority.
     The Paadars are in a minority even among Ivalo's reindeer herders.
     However, the dispute is so complicated that the Paadars can be seen to be in the majority among their own as well.
     Nearly all of the reindeer herding associations in the forested areas of the Sami region have clashed with Metsähallitus. The reindeer men have long complained about felling, and many Sami before the Paadars have gone to court against the organisation.
     
Ari Paadar feels that many different types of activities will easily fit into the forest side by side. Metsähallitus, his employer, feels the same way. This is seen as the best way to extract the greatest benefit from the state lands.
     However, Metsähallitus feels that it has an awkward role. The law states that it needs to pay heed to considerations of reindeer husbandry, the Sami, and employment. In addition to that, it must preserve natural diversity, and recreational use of nature.
     No matter what Metsähallitus does, someone always gets angry.
     Ari Paadar feels that felling would do good for the reindeer grazing areas in the mossy forests. He also has a strong belief of what the real motives of his brothers are.
     "They are errand boys of Greenpeace. Some old boys will agree to anything if someone wearing a skirt asks them to."
     Supporters of tree felling are eager to believe that the environmental organisation is taking advantage of the Paadars in an effort to publicly discredit forestry in all of Finnish Lapland.
     The reindeer-herding Paadars are at pains to give assurances that they were desperately concerned over their livelihood, and Greenpeace was the only one to come to help them, and the only one whose help brought relief.
     
The Paadars on the reindeer side have had help from other experts in the field of public relations. In addition to Greenpeace, the Finnish League for Human Rights and the Sami Council have taken the Nellim reindeer men under their wings.
     They have declared that the problems facing the Paadars stem primarily from the fact that the issue of Sami land rights has not been resolved.
      The land rights issue is the most difficult and complicated of the disputes of the north of Finnish Lapland, which has been going on for decades.
     The issue at hand boils down to this:
     The state has control of 90 per cent of the land in what is officially designated as the Sami region. The majority of the Sami feel that as indigenous people they have the right to decide on the use of the land. They also feel that this is nothing less than a prerequisite for the preservation of their culture.
     Other residents of Finnish Lapland feel that their rights will be trampled if the Sami are given a greater rights to their land.
     Finland has been promising for years to resolve the Sami land rights question one way or another. If it does not, Finland cannot join the ILO convention on the rights of indigenous peoples, and that would be embarrassing on the world stage. After all, the Sami are the only indigenous people in the European Union.
     But no solution has ben achieved. In addition to local people, politicians, civil servants, and even researchers disagree sharply with each other.
     
So would it be possible that the use of the land in Nellim might be decided in local meetings? Issues include where trees can be felled, where cabin villages might be built, where prospecting for ore would be permitted, and where dog sleds can be used. All of these activities bother the reindeer.
     In principle, it could be possible. The most far-reaching dreams of the Sami include the idea of self-government for the Sami regions, and the Sami together would own the present state land.
     But it would seem to be realistic for some kind of joint administration, at the most, to be set up together with ethnic Finns. The ownership of the land would remain with the state, and attempts would be made to secure the prerequisites for raising reindeer.
     The most recent proposals for compromise - ones which are stuck somewhere in the paper files of the ministries - are calling for something like that.
     At present the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Agriculture are reportedly engaged in a serious arm wrestle aimed at finding a solution.
     
Defenders of forestry also see the land rights issue as being linked with the Nellim disputes. They feel that the Human Rights League and the Sami activists are making too much noise over the Nellim dispute, in order to make the present land rights situation of the Sami to look as bad as possible.
     The reindeer-herding Paadars refuse to take a stand on the issue of land rights.
     "It is such a big issue", Eero Paadar laughs.
     But the Paadars nevertheless find themselves in the midst of a considerable upheaval.
     The confusion is not made any easier by the fact that the Paadars are also in the midst of a third dispute - one that is even more intense. The controversy focuses on whether or not reindeer owned by the Paadars and a certain other local owner should be forcibly slaughtered.
     The Paadars have refused to cull as many reindeer as the herders' association has ordered its members to do.
     The head of the Ivalo reindeer herders' association, Viljo Huru says that the Paadars are increasing the number of reindeer that they are holding. "That is simply an attempt to seek their own benefit at the expense of others.
     State officials determine how many reindeer the land areas covered by each herding association can sustain. The associations must therefore make sure that enough reindeer are slaughtered.
     The dispute within the Ivalo association reached a point at which the association decided to forcibly kill reindeer of the Nellim herders. Now the plan has been frozen, because the Paadars sued the association, and the Supreme Administrative Court is considering the dispute.
     
The Ivalo reindeer herding association has about 140 members. Kalevi, Veijo, and Eero Paadar belong to the most northerly group, the Nellim group, which is also the smallest.
     The Nellim herders say that the new rules on culling will gradually lead to an end of their herds, and that forced slaughter will be a death blow at one go.
     Calf mortality is higher in the Nellim area than in more southerly areas, and the new rules favour those with a higher calf survival rate.
     The Paadars say that they lose more animals to predators, and they even have suspicions that their adversaries have been deliberately killing their animals.
     Huru says that the Paadars simply do not take good care of their reindeer - a claim which the Paadars dismiss out of hand.
     They accuse Huru of trying to end reindeer herding in Nellim. They say that he is pushing the forced slaughter issue as payback over the forest dispute, and has incited other herders to join forces against them.
     Huru takes a completely opposite view. He says that the Nellim herders have alienated the other members with their stubbornness.
     Now Pekka Aikio, former chairman of the Saami Parliament, is working behind the scenes in an attempt to find a solution to the culling dispute.
     
At a session of Ivalo District Court, of representatives of Metsähallitus sit in a row, and next to them is another row of representatives of the reindeer-herding Paadars. The brothers themselves are not present. This is a matter for lawyers and bigwigs.
     Listening to the exhausting debate there is time to wonder which side is most credible in the Nellim disputes. Who is right about the lichen growing on the trees, as it seems to have such an important role?
      The Paadars' legal counsel explain how the felling eliminates lichen even from trees outside the logging area. Representatives of Metsähallitus interpret the same study in a different manner, concluding that the lichen is not damaged so seriously.
     Neither side is definitely wrong, as researchers also have different views on the impact of the felling.
     
The piles of files on both sides of the table are huge. There has been debate on felling plans, reindeer behaviour, and relations between Metsähallitus and the reindeer men.
     And there is no agreement on anything, and each side has credible arguments.
     The court is not to be envied.
     What the trial boils down to is whether or not the felling causes such serious damage to the reindeer herding operations of the Paadars as to violate the law, and above all, the UN Treaty on Civic and Political Rights.
     If old signs are anything to go by, it will be years before any answer is forthcoming.
     When the Sami reindeer herders in Upper Lapland have gone to court over felling areas, decisions have usually been appealed as far as there are courts.
     After Finnish courts have been exhausted, the disputes have moved into the international arena. The highest adjudicator of Sami issues is the UN Human Rights Committee, which has so far ruled that felling in the area has not threatened Sami culture, but that in the future, it might.
     
Perhaps each side in the dispute is right. In a way.
     Kalevi, Eero, and Veijo Paadar are certain that their reindeer are under threat.
     Woodsman Ari Paadar is genuinely afraid that forest workers will not have jobs in the future.
     Greenpeace, human rights advocates, and Sami advocates are sincere in their efforts on behalf of the reindeer-herding livelihood of the Paadars and the Sami. However, at the same time they are promoting the protection of forests and land rights for the Sami.
     Viljo Huru and the majority of the reindeer herding association feel that the Paadar reindeer men are motivated by self-interest. The latter, meanwhile are convinced that the association is persecuting them.
     It is unlikely that harmony will return to Nellim very soon, or that the disputes of the Paadar brothers will be quickly resolved.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 2.3.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Reindeer disputes in Finnish Lapland attract attention of UN (30.10.2007)
  Mystique and romance largely gone from traditional reindeer roundups (21.10.2007)
  Felling in Upper Lapland continues inside reindeer feeding enclosures (9.11.2005)

MARI MANNINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
mari.manninen@hs.fi