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Wildfires, drought hit Sweden’s Sami reindeer herders
STOCKHOLM, July 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Sweden’s unprecedented drought and
devastating wildfires are destroying vital grazing pastureland for indigenous
Sami reindeer herders, whose livelihoods are already under attack from mining
and logging as global warming changes the face of the Arctic.
“Our winter land is burning,” says Jonas Kraik, a 54-year-old herder,
whose Sami village with as many as 8,000 reindeer is a popular tourist
destination in the central Swedish region of Jamtland.
Jamtland is one of the areas worst hit by the wildfires, and another
herder, Edvin Ensberg, 43, said he has lost at least 6,000 hectares (15,000
acres) of grazing land for his reindeer.
“The fires are extremely worrying and we cannot measure the exact
consequences as we can’t see due to the smoke,” he told AFP.
“I doubt there will be any pasture for the reindeer to graze on in the
winter,” he said.
The Sami — formerly called Lapps — have lived in the northern parts of
Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, for thousands of years. They are the only
people authorised to herd reindeer in Sweden.
While there are no exact figures regarding the size of the Sami
population, it is estimated at between 80,000 and 100,000, spread across the
four countries.
Semi-domesticated reindeer can be found across the northernmost part of
Europe, and are raised for their meat, pelts, and antlers.
Every autumn, the reindeer are taken to their winter pasture to graze in
the plains.
– ‘Burning all around me’-
Margret Fjellstrom, a reindeer owner in Dikanas, a mountainous village 800
kilometres (500 miles) north of the capital Stockholm, was lucky to be spared
the fires, but said the drought is taking its toll on her animals.
“It’s extremely dry in the mountains… the calves get dehydrated and too
weak to follow their mothers when grazing,” she said.
MORE/MR/ 1116 hrs
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There has been practically no rainfall in Sweden since the beginning of
May, aside from a few millimetres in mid-June.
The Nordic country, where summer temperatures are usually closer to 23
Celsius, is under-equipped to deal with this kind of natural catastrophe and
asked for help from Italy, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Poland and France to
extinguish the blazes.
Marcus Rensberg, 35, who owns 5,000 reindeer in a village called Alvdalen
— meaning river valley — 300 kilometres northwest of Stockholm, volunteered
to help authorities put out the fires as 4,000 hectares of his grazing land
was wiped out.
“It could take up to 30 years for the grazing land to be completely
restored,” he told AFP over the phone, coughing due to the smoke.
“It’s burning all around me,” he said before abruptly hanging up.
– ‘Very tough winter’ –
According to the Sami Parliament, the representative body for the Sami
people, Sweden has 4,600 reindeer owners for just over 250,000 animals.
The current drought and fires are merely the latest in a long list of
challenges facing the herders, as their land is eaten up by the mining and
logging industries, and encroached upon by wind turbines.
Climate change is also making it difficult for the reindeer to find the
lichen that form an important part of their diet, forcing herders to resort
to more costly fodder.
“We’ve had a very tough winter. It was hard for the reindeer to dig out
their food in the snow,” Fjellstrom said.
A member of the Sami parliament, Marita Stinnerbom, said that some 34
million kronor (3.0 million euros, $3.8 million) has been raised to pay for
fodder following the previous winter.
Stinnerbom said the fires had to be extinguished before the exact damage
could be determined and what measures should be taken to compensate the
herders.
“The government is following the developments closely and is in contact
with the relevant authorities,” Tina Israelsson, a government spokeswoman,
told AFP when asked about possible compensation.
Reindeer owner Marcus Rensberg said finding new grazing areas could prove
difficult.
“The reindeer will go somewhere… I just don’t know where that is,” he
said.”
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1116 hrs