Reindeer herders battle power line needed for Norway’s climate goal

A band of Sami herders is taking the government to court over clean energy plans, Gwladys Fouche writes

Sami reindeer herders separate and mark a reindeer inside a corral after their herds mixed together while grazing up on the Finnmark Plateau in Jergal, Norway (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

It is -6C in Arctic Norway and some 30 indigenous Sami herders have gathered 1,500 reindeer in a corral, sorting who owns which animal after the herds mixed while grazing up on the Finnmark Plateau.

It is also an opportunity to discuss their big worry: a planned 34-mile (55km) power line to supply Western Europe’s largest liquefied natural gas plant.

The line will be built on pastures the herders use in summer, in coastal areas where they say towns, cabins, roads, existing power lines and other infrastructure have already encroached on the land they use.

“We cannot afford to lose more summer pastures,” said Nils Mathis Sara, whose herd graze in the area where the line is due to be built this summer.

Reindeer move in a corral as they wait to be identified and separated by their owners after the herds mixed together while grazing on the Finnmark Plateau (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

Sami reindeer herder Nils Mathis Sara gets onto his snowmobile, which is dragging a sledge carrying supplementary feed pellets for reindeer, outside his cabin near Geadgebarjavri on the plateau (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

“We have nothing else to give away,” he said as he drove to the winter pasture in Jergal, some 1,000 miles from Oslo, while they make preparations to move to the summer pasture, 155 miles away, near the city of Hammerfest.

The power line will help Norway cut its CO2 emissions, with the government committing to cut the country’s emissions by 55 per cent compared to 1990 levels by 2030.

With electrification, Hammerfest LNG would use renewable power from the grid – most of Norway’s electricity production comes from hydropower – instead of gas to run its five turbines.

A Sami reindeer herder uses a cloth to round up reindeer in a corral to identify, separate and mark them after herds mixed together (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

Reindeer circle inside a corral as Sami herders gather some 1,500 reindeer to identify, separate and return them to their owners (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

The conflict illustrates the difficult choices countries must make to cut greenhouse gas emissions and power future growth, often involving competing use for land.

“We need to create new jobs, enable more economic activity. Future jobs will rely on clean energy, not diesel-powered generators,” Elisabeth Saether, Norway’s deputy energy minister, said.

“For this government, it is not an option to give a categoric ‘no’ to new power and new power lines in reindeer herding areas.”

Sami reindeer herder Nils Mathis Sara, 65, spreads supplementary feed pellets from a bag for his reindeer (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

Sara’s reindeer eat the supplementary feed pellets (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

“This is not such a big hindrance that herders will be unable to practise their culture,” Saether said.

Reindeer herders disagree. Sara’s reindeer district group, which numbers around 100 herders, is planning legal action to stop construction of the line. The herders say the impact of the power line will disrupt the natural behaviour of the animals.

“Reindeer avoid the area where power lines are built. You can make them pass under, but they won’t stay there,” herder Eira said. “The structures make them afraid and they don’t like the sound they make.”

Herders are under pressure on several fronts, including from climate change. They now have to supplement the animals’ feed as milder weather has resulted in ice layers forming from rain showers that then freeze – meaning the reindeer cannot always dig for the lichen with their hooves.

Newly-built power lines and pylons that will transport electricity to Western Europe’s largest liquefied natural gas plant Hammerfest LNG and other parts of Finnmark county stand near the road between Alta and Skaidi (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

Sara’s reindeer run in a winter pasture (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

More broadly, herders say society should reduce consumption or find alternatives to cut emissions, such as carbon capture, which the government rejected as too expensive.

“What I don’t get about the energy transition is that to make it happen, we need to destroy nature,” said Sara. “To me, that does not make sense.”

Reuters