Reindeer Husbandry and Barents 2030

Research on impacts of human activity and infrastructure development on reindeer and caribou ( Rangifer taran- dus ) has periodically been reviewed (Wolfe et al . 2000, National Research Council 2003, Vistnes and Nellemann 2008). Before the 1980s, most disturbance studies were behavioral studies of individual animals at local scales, reporting few and short-term impacts within 0–2 km from human activity, including typically observations of reindeer or caribou bulls on roads and under buildings during insect harassment. Around the mid 1980s, focus shifted to regional-scale landscape studies, reporting that Rangifer , and particular females with calves ac- counting for over 80% of the herd of semi-domesticated reindeer, reduced the use of areas within 5 km from in- frastructure and human activity by 50–95%, the extent varying with type of disturbance, sex, terrain, season, and sensitivity of herds. Of 85 studies reviewed, 84% of the regional studies concluded that the impacts of hu- man activity were significant, while only 11% of the local studies did the same (Vistnes and Nellemann 2008). Numerous studies across the Arctic have documented that the physical barriers and pasture fragmentation resulting from infrastructure development adversely affect the distribution and movements of reindeer and caribou (Bradshaw et al . 1997, Nellemann and Cameron 1998, Dyer et al . 2001, Johnson et al . 2001, Vistnes et al . 2001, Schaefer and Mahoney 2007), and from the 1990s and onwards, this has also been docu-

REINDEER HUSBANDRY AND BARENTS 2030 20