Confined and Sustainable? A Critique of Recent Pastoral Policy for Reindeer Herding in Finnmark, Northern Norway

Abstract

Recently, an increa.sing number of development plans and strategies for pastoral conununities have failed to ensure the sought sustainability. especially in ecosystems characterised by fluctuating environmental conditions. Many of these strategies are centred on a policy of confining, controlling and .settling the nomadic herders. This article illustrates some of the principles and pitfalls of this approach with the ca.se of senii-nomadic reindeer herding in Northetn Norway. It juxtapo.ses the management views advocated by the herders with those expressed and implied hy the recent state policies for reindeer herding. The focus is placed on the changes in latid tenure and resource access. On the one hand, the state policy is founded on the assumptions of the tragedy-of-the-commons theory and argues for a formalised individual tenure regime as the only arrangement able to prevent/redress the alleged environmental degradation. On the other hand, the herders argue for a complex, and at times paradoxical, tenure and tnanagement regime, one that ensures both tenure security and flexibility, an adaptation of customary principles to the present situation. Our conclusion supports iticreasing evidence from elsewhere that gaps between the policy prescriptions and the pastoral management strategies have often resulted in negative social and environmental consequences. We argue for the need to include the experience and expectations of the herders in the design of legitimate and enduring co-management regimes as the only sustainable alternative.

Socioeconomic Life of Climate Change: Extensivity in Reindeer Husbandry in Relation to Synergies between Social and Climate Change (Kola Peninsula)

“…In this the practice is similar to a certain degree to much that happens elsewhere in Fennoscandic husbandry today (Heikkinen, 2006;Marin, 2006), while being different from the generally more intensive forms in other Russian parts of the Barents Region, notably in the Komi Republic and the Nenets Autonomous Region.…”

Smaller Saami Herding Groups Cooperate More in a Public Goods Experiment

“…Increasingly privatised land-use rights are associated with an increased prevalence of fences in Finnmark (Kelman and Næss 2013). Fencing, in turn, might potentially limit access to migration corridors in the common spring/autumn areas (Marin 2006) and mobility more generally; a strategy of walking away from uncooperative others has been shown theoretically to foster cooperative outcomes (Aktipis 2011; Lewis et al 2014). Herders in Finnmark emphasise the need for secure but flexible access to resources as opposed to land tenure reform per se (Marin 2006).…”

“…Herders are also sensitive to situations in which encroachment becomes a ‘shameful’ (Saami: hæppat ) act of trespassing (Paine 1994). Herders will cooperate in a contingent and reciprocal manner, working with neighbouring siidas to separate herds when they become mixed, and ensuring against the degradation of lichen along shared migration corridors (Marin 2006). Indeed, the act of migration itself presents a coordination problem: the timing of migrations depends in part on the movements of neighbouring siidas (Tyler et al 2007).…”

A tragedy of errors? Institutional dynamics and land tenure in Finnmark, Norway

“…This comes on top of customary rules that regulate migration routes in specified intervals and certain resting areas for the herd for limited periods. These rules make it possible to avoid both the mixing of herds, the degradation of pastures by trampling, and give access to alternative pastures if your own were inaccessible due to climate conditions (Bjørklund and Brantenberg 1981;Marin 2006). They place responsibility on the herders to avoid a harmful impact upon the ranges of another herder.…”

“…Those who do follow them can be said to benefit from the subsidies, but it is not obvious that the only motivation is financial (e.g. Ulvevadet 2000 ;Marin 2006). This apparent compliance tells us little about the effect of layering of regulations.…”