An Open Letter by Eero Orbas
I started reindeer herding 1993 with my father. In that time, reindeer gathering was made by walking in the summertime and with snowmobile during the winter. We started to collect the reindeer inside the summer fences for the ear marking in half way of the June. That time of the year, there was plenty of mosquitos already. Earmarking took two to three weeks and that time all the reindeer herders lived in wilderness cabins together, so work was quite a big social happening too. In pauses and in daytime (all the work with the reindeers was and is still in summertime, made in night time so the calf would not suffer the daytime heat) there was lots of time to exchange all the news that were happened during the long Lappish spring and winter. And of course, we warmed sauna everyday to wash out all the dust and sweat and to relax muscles from long day walks (in one night we easily walked 30 km)
Now it is not the same anymore. Government is lowering the maximum reindeer amount every now and then, so many families have already given up reindeer herding. And the reason for it? They say that reindeer are destroying the nature in Lapland. Have you ever heard that reindeer has built the house? Road? Mine? Factory? Or ever tilled the ground? No? Well I have not seen it either, Reindeers are eating and digging snow, like they have from beginning of time. Our family has been always been living from nature and reindeers and all the trouble started when the first mining industry started in Lapland. From then, reindeer herders have been forced to give always space for modern industry and industry have never been really negotiating with people who were here first. Is this right and is it sustainable? I think not. I hope that people would be able to get true information what is going on in Lapland and then they could show with their buying behavior that is it ok and they could demand sustainability from companies instead of maximum profit
But now back to modern time. Reindeer winter feeding started in our area already in beginning of the 90s. In the summer time we collected lots of food for reindeer. Every day, if it was raining, leaf branches, hay, water horsetail (i believe it is the right word – it is long green straw growing in lakes), would be collected in the late summer. It was the hardest work because it was soaking wet and heavy
In autumn time when leaves started to turn yellow, we started to repair the fences for the heat season. It is the time when we made our yearly income. Big reindeer herds were pushed to fences where we separated those who continued breeding from those who were sold. Then next day, reindeer were slaughtered and a truck came to pick up the ready corpses
Soon there came a time when reindeer were picked from the fence alive and slaughtered in the slaughtery in city of Rovaniemi. This meant that reindeer herders lost one part of their income and they had to start to think where to earn more. So many reindeer herders started co-operations around Lapland. In our village too, and it is running nicely and it gives extra income for reindeer herders which they really need because feeding time is getting longer all the time
I remember that in 2005, the first winter separation (where we brought reindeers inside the fence) was 11th of January. I remember the day, because that day I have to start my service in the Finnish army. Now feeding starts every year in beginning of December and this year already in beginning of November because of the changing climate It was quite exceptional, this year there came lots of snow in beginning of November then it was raining for couple of days and then came low temperatures (-10, -20 degrees C), so reindeers started to head south fast. We have to collect reindeer even from 200 km away
Why is it changing? Well I think it is because of the climate change that climate is turning more wet, winters are getting warmer, and weather is getting more unpredictable. Another big thing is the modern forest industry and especially practices with soil turning. When you turn the soil over, there is nothing, and I mean nothing, for reindeer to eat. The landscape in Lapland is so poor and dry that there is nothing growing on tilled land for years – or even decades – and when you turn the soil and all the rock is coming up. Sometimes you feel that you are driving in the moon, or on mars, and nothing will ever grow on rocks. And when you cut down all the trees, there is no more mushrooms in the autumn time for reindeer, because they live in symbiosis with the trees. So if there is no trees, there is no mushrooms and mushrooms are the most important thing for reindeers to gather some weight for the winter. If they don’t get their mushrooms, then there is going to trouble in the winter time keeping alive, so it is not so easy. We are open to responsible, sustainable forestry but in Finland, we feel as though the government is not even trying. They say that they listen to us, and maybe so, but we haven’t seen even the slightest action that we are suggesting
There are options, like you could do “continuous growing harvestry” instead of getting just maximum profit, cutting everything down and tilling everything. Do they even think how long time it takes for the nature to heal the soil? It should not be always just about money, we should think also about nature and all the people that are living from the nature. We can do both things, reindeer herding and forestry like we have been doing, until the modern heavy forest industry started. With unsustainable practices like clear cutting. If this modern greedy way of life is going to continue, reindeer herding will be soon gone. So will pure, wild and free Lapland. Soon there is only mining, paper industry, and some artificial “Sámi villages” for tourism industry left
I am writing because if you don’t want it, you must say