The Sami are an indigenous people of northern Europe. Around 100,000 of them live in Sapmi, a region spanning Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. They are best known for their reindeer herding—calm creatures which travel hundreds of kilometres each year between summer and winter grazing grounds. Herding is central to Sami culture and depends on access to wide, open landscapes.
Sweden's constitution recognises the Sami's right to use land for reindeer herding, but these rights exist alongside competing property claims. Lacking a clear legal framework, communities are forced to fight industrial expansion in courts or corporate boardrooms. Logging has reduced lichen-rich grazing areas by 71% over the past 60 years. Arctic warming creates erratic weather that turns snow into ice, sealing lichen—the reindeer's main food source—beneath an impenetrable crust.
Europe's green transition is reviving interest in Sweden's north for mining and wind farms, further squeezing herding corridors. In Kiruna, the main migration corridor has been compressed to a passage only a few kilometres wide. Elle Merete Omma, head of the EU unit in the Saami Council, an advocacy organisation, says growing scrutiny is prompting more investors to assess the consequences of the projects they fund. Legal challenges by Sami communities have stalled major projects, including a nickel mine in Sweden's Västerbotten region.
With listening comes wisdom, with speaking repentance.