Authored By Christina Shintani and Ravdna Biret Marja Eira Sara
Across the Arctic, nomadic reindeer herders find themselves on the frontlines of a rapidly changing world. Their traditional way of life, deeply intertwined with the seasonal migrations of their reindeer herds, face significant threats from both changing land use and the escalating impacts of climate change. The expansion of infrastructure, hydropower projects, mineral exploration, and wind power construction increasingly fragments and reduces vital pasture lands, directly competing with the space needed for reindeer to graze. Simultaneously, rising temperatures, fluctuating precipitation patterns, and shifts in vegetation composition disrupt the delicate ecological balance of these grazing lands, impacting the health and food availability for the reindeer. The Fálá reindeer herd in Western Finnmark, Norway, managed by three Sámi families comprising about 25 people known as a siida, vividly illustrates these challenges. Their annual 260 kilometer migration, taking approximately 1.5 to 2 weeks from winter pastures to the summer grazing grounds on the island of Fálá, is increasingly complicated by changing climatic and land use pressures. Reindeer herders traditionally follow the natural rhythms of the land, but increasingly common poor grazing conditions, resulting from dense snowpack and climate change, occasionally compel them to use vehicles to transport the reindeer, a practice detrimental to both the animals and their herders. For the Fálá siida, as for many other Indigenous reindeer herding communities, the loss and fragmentation of pastures not only threaten their economic livelihoods but also their cultural heritage and traditional knowledge passed down through generations.
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