In this way, reindeer pastures are now in the fells – the Sámi trunks are asking the ministry to proclaim an emergency

The weather that varies from rainfall to frosts have frozen in the fells of the earth so that the reindeer cannot dig for itself.

The shepherd’s shepherd, the shepherd, has had to feed its reindeer since the first snow. Every other week, truckload of hay is brought to the home yard, and the reindeer also give feed for supplementary nutrition.

Feeding costs can reach up to € 150,000 a year. This was also the case last year, but now the situation is worse.

– Here I still take 80 kilometers around Tokka, get back home and feed again in the afternoon and evening, Vasara describes.

The hammer emphasizes that if the reindeer are not fed, they will starve.

– There are up to ten cents of ice in some places. Fortunately, there are a few north, but that’s not enough. I haven’t seen such a bad pasture during my reindeer herding career.

The Sámi Fire Association is resorting to the ministry

The Sámi Association is invoking the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to determine the exceptional snow and natural conditions of winter. The report is a prerequisite for compensation for the reindeer herders for the emergency situation caused by exceptional natural conditions.

The situation is poor due to freezing and mold and snow ice layers, according to a communication sent to the Ministry of the Sámi Association to the Ministry of Sámi.

– The conditions have caused the widespread hiking of reindeer, the need for emergency and additional feeding, and will lead to the death of reindeer.

The reindeer herders consider that the ministry must declare an emergency, as the corresponding ministry has declared in Norway.

Even in Sweden, there has not been such a bad situation for many years. It is reflected in the number of emergency compensation.

Reindeer herds Association: Emergency in the Tunturi area pasture

– In the northern areas of the arm, you can already talk about an emergency. It has been out there for so long in exceptional circumstances, and this spring no longer has time to fix it, says Ollila.

Ollila has never seen such a situation where the weather varies greatly within a short period of time.

– You dare not say anything anymore, it has been a strange winter. It is scary to comment when old information is no longer true.

The ministry will follow the situation

– We will draw up if immediate, extensive, and unpredictable damage under the Reindeer Care Act is detected and information is needed for the cause of the damage.

Pesonen says the ministry is following how the situation develops. The weather and snow conditions of the reindeer herding area are monitored throughout the winter based on the data of the Natural Resources Center and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Asko Länsman, a reindeer herder, is disappointed with how the reindeer damage law in Finland works.

– Reindeer should die indefinitely before the benefit is to report anything. The Destruction Act should be arranged in the same way as in Norway and Sweden to get compensation for the years.

In Finland, the state has paid reindeer herders in accordance with the Reindeer Damage Act only once, for the winter 2019-2020 pasture crisis. At that time, the situation was poor throughout the entire reindeer herding area due to the large amount of snow. Only the reindeer herders of the baking, Näkkälä and Kolari did not receive compensation money because their reindeer figures were too large.

Another bad winter was reindeer herding in the Sámi homeland and in Central Lapland in the winter of 2021-2022, but the state did not pay compensation.