Reindeer disputes in Finnish Lapland attract attention of UN

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By Matti Huuskonen
     
      The highest trustee of the reindeer herding association of Ivalo, herder Viljo Juru, leads his guests to the carcass of a reindeer that has been pecked at by ravens and hawks.
      The animal died on Saturday when relations between the majority and minority of the association reached a boiling point at the Moitakuru roundup fence south of Ivalo.
      Kalevi Paadar of Nellim, who is in the minority, tried to prevent Huru and others in the majority from putting reindeer belonging to Paadar's brother Eero Paadar into the slaughterhouse lorry.
      The dispute delayed the roundup so that four reindeer finally died of overhydration, or were trampled by other reindeer in a panic.
     
Huru and Paadar disagree on which of the two were ultimately responsible for the death of the reindeer.
      On Thursday the dispute turned from a disagreement between two men into an issue of international politics.
      A letter arrived on Wednesday from the United Nations, in which representatives of the world organisation inquired what Finland plans to do about the forced slaughter.
      The letter was signed by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen of Mexico, as well as Pakistani Hina Jilani, the UN Secretary-General's expert on human rights.
      On Thursday news of the letter from the UN reached Ivalo and Nellim. The national Reindeer Herders' Association immediately called the leadership of the local association and the minority herders from Nellim to a reconciliation meeting the following week in Nellim.
     
Huru planned to organise a telephone conference of the executive of the local association, and to propose that if forced slaughter would not be allowed because of the UN intervention, then all other slaughter should be stopped for the present winter.
      Such a move would mean that 3,500 extra reindeer would be left in the forests of Ivalo and Nellim over the winter.
      Such a move would mean that shareholders in the association would lose the income deríved from that number of reindeer. They could also lose EU subsidies, because the maximum number of reindeer set for the Ivalo Reindeer Herders' Association, 6,000 animals, would be vastly exceeded. In addition, the State Provincial Office of Finnish Lapland could impose a fine on the association - EUR 340 for each reindeer exceeding the upper limit.
      Huru predicted that next year, if the state requires the association to count the number of reindeer, there will be 9,500 reindeer in the enclosure.
     
Huru says that the association has decided legally how many reindeer the members must cull each year to keep the number of animals below 6,000.
      The minority is not satisfied with the decisions, and has not sent the required number of reindeer to slaughter in many years. The local association has tried to rectify matters by taking the minority members to court. However, the court has sided with the minority.
      This year, the majority took tougher measures - forced slaughter: every extra reindeer with the exception of stud males, are sent to the slaughterhouse, to bring the number down to the maximum.
      As Huru sees it, if the extra reindeer are not culled, those in the majority will have to kill their own reindeer on behalf of the minority, as it were.
     
About 20 of the more than 100 members of the herders' association have surplus reindeer. The greatest number are owned by the Paadar brothers, Kalevi, Eero, and Veijo and their partner Kari Alatorvinen.
      They feel that the procedure for choosing reindeer for slaughter, which was taken into use at the beginning of the decade, does not consider the fact that more of the calves of the Nellim reindeer die before reaching maturity than in Ivalo, the southern region of the reindeer herders' association. "The calves of the Ivalo herders graze in Saariselkä. Predators do not like to go there, but they go to the Sarmitunturi wilderness near the Russian border", explains Kalevi Paadar.
      The Nellim herders say that they have tried to find a solution many times, but as there were no results, they have had to resort to outside help, such as the Saami Council.
      The Saami Council took a stand againast the forced slaughter, and called for changes in the law on reindeer husbandry. It also brought the Nellim matter to the attention of the UN.
      Council chairwoman Pauliina Feodoroff says that part of the Sami identity has been that everyone must have the possibility to keep reindeer.
      To that end, she feels that the law on reindeer husbandry needs to be changed so as to secure the co-existence of different types of reindeer owners, even within the same herders' association.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 26.10.2007


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mystique and romance largely gone from traditional reindeer roundups (21.10.2007)

Links:
  Reindeer Herders´ Association website:
  Saami Council

MATTI HUUSKONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
matti.huuskonen@hs.fi