Contested landscapes

Competing land uses have during the last years escalated massively on traditional reindeer grazing lands in northern Sweden. They result in pressures that provoke cumulative (i.e. combined) impacts of a magnitude that for many Sami reindeer herding communities threaten the future of traditional herding – and thus even Sami culture. State officials and several developers find it hard if not impossible to manage or prevent these cumulative impacts. As reasons, they cite a lack of knowledge and decision support tools but also a paucity of political steering and legislative failures.

In this report we present new knowledge from our research aimed at understanding how the state, developers and Sami communities may improve the governance of cumulative impacts of competing land uses on reindeer herding and Sami land use broadly. The results derive from the project ‘Contested landscapes: navigating competing claims on cumulative impacts (CO-LAND)’. The purpose of the project was to examine how government authorities, and decision makers generally, can make more informed decisions and strengthen their role in reducing conflicts between different land users at a time when the pressure on natural resources are rapidly increasing. The overall approach taking was inspired by participatory action research, with emphasis on traditional Sami knowledge. The research was undertaken in partnership between the project’s Sami organizations linked to reindeer herding and the academic institutions.