Reindeer Husbandry and Barents 2030

Philip Burgess

Svein Disch Mathiesen

THE BARENTS REGION AND ITS INDIGENOUS INHABITANTS

versa (Bull et al . 2001). As a result of these varying conditions, reindeer husbandry is conducted in differ- ent forms throughout the Barents Region. The Sámi people also consist of several more or less distinct groups with different livelihoods including fisheries and reindeer herding, as well as a wide variety of other occupations. The Sámi are divided into several differ- ent language groups (Figure 2). It is important to note that this very same region repre- sents the largest commercially unexploited continuous ranges in Europe, the greater part of which represents the home and traditional pastures of the indigenous peoples that live there (UNEP/EEA 2004).

The Barents Region includes the grazing range for over 800,000 semi-domestic reindeer, the tradition- al livestock of the Sámi, Komi and Nenets people (Jernsletten and Klokov, 2002). Both natural and po- litical conditions have formed this way of life. Natu- ral conditions decide where grazing conditions are most favourable at any given time of the year with regards to snow, forage quality and quantity, preda- tors, insects, and climate. Political conditions such as closing of national borders and regulation of pasture use have constrained reindeer in other ways, such as the closing of the Norwegian-Finnish border in 1852 which excluded all reindeer on the Finnish side from their traditional summer pastures in Norway and vice

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