Hammastunturi Reindeer-Herding Co-operative
Muddusjärvi Reindeer-Herding Co-operative
Muotkatunturi Reindeer-Herding Co-operative
Paatsjoki Reindeer-Herding Co-operative
Reindeer herders from the Nellim herding group

Press release June 10, 2005, Ivalo

The negotiation mandate of Metsähallitus inadequate

The negotiations between Metsähallitus and reindeer-herding cooperatives on logging in Northern Lapland were discontinued without a solution in Ivalo today.

The reindeer-herding cooperatives had asked for separate negotiations with Metsähallitus because, according to their experiences, the Natural Resources Plan for Upper Lapland does not take into consideration the legal position of reindeer herding and its rights as a land user; neither does the process guarantee the natural pastures that are a prerequisite for reindeer herding.

However, the negotiations showed that Metsähallitus has still not been granted the authority to make the permanent decisions on the use of forest in Northern Lapland which are a necessity for reindeer herding. Metsähallitus uses employment as an argument for its views but refused – during the negotiations – to give up using harvesters in Northern Lapland. In addition, Metsähallitus has refused to acknowledge reindeer herding as a manifestation of Sámi culture: Metsähallitus did not accept the Sámi herding group – the Nellim herding group – of Ivalo Reindeer-herding Cooperative as a party in the negotiations. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has stated several times during the negotiation period that the Ministry will not interfere with the internal processes of Metsähallitus and that the planned volume of logging must stay at the present level.

Therefore, Metsähallitus can negotiate only about a slight decrease in the logging volume. However, looking at the volume of logging without a commitment to saving enough pastures is not reasonable from the point of view of reindeer herding and the equal treatment of the herding cooperatives. The pasture forests that the reindeer-herding cooperatives have marked are necessary if reindeer herding is to be based on grazing on natural pastures in future, too. Reindeer herding can maintain the present levels of employment, settlement, Sámi language and traditional knowledge on nature and the multiple uses of the reindeer only if it is based on natural pastures.

The reindeer-herding cooperatives are willing to continue negotiations in the early autumn and hope that, by that time, Metsähallitus has been able to get a negotiation mandate which is so comprehensive that the issue can be resolved.

Last November, the UN Human Rights Committee criticized Finland for not settling the matter of the land rights of the Sámi especially as regards reindeer herding. The Committee recommended that Finland refrain from taking measures which could have adverse effects on the realization of these rights. Taking this into consideration, one would expect the State to assume the responsibility for adjusting its forestry to reindeer herding so that the profitability of reindeer herding is not decreased through the impairment of pasture resources.

As the negotiations with Metsähallitus did not resolve the issue, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry should start negotiations with the reindeer-herding cooperatives as stated in the Article 53 of the Reindeer Herding Act and grant Metsähallitus an adequate mandate in these negotiations. The reindeer-herding cooperatives which have signed this paper requested such negotiations from the Ministry last January.

Further information: Johanna Ojala, tel. +358 – 400 – 879 711

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