Kilna, Sweden (AP) — Lars Marcus Kumnen, the pastor of the Sami reindeer, on the top of Mount Ruossavala in northern Sweden, maps a dark future for himself and for other indigenous peoples whose reindeers have roamed the land for thousands of years.
The expansion of iron ore and rare earth mineral deposits fragment the land and alter the routes of ancient reindeer travel. but, Arctic warming Four times faster than the rest of the planet, pastoralists say they don’t need more geographical flexibility to ensure the survival of their animals.
If the mine was established with deposits of rare earth minerals, which Sweden is the largest Herald of Europe, Kumnen said it could completely block the travel routes used by Gabuna in Sami village.
It will be the end of the indigenous way of life for Kuchumnen, his children and their fellow Samitre deer herdsmen, he said.
“Reindeer is the fundamental foundation of Sami culture in Sweden,” Kumnen said. “Everything is established around the successor, everything, food, language, mountain knowledge, everything is established around a herd of reindeer. If it doesn’t stop, the Sami culture will no longer exist.”
Sami’s reindeer herdsmen follow tradition for generations
Sami herdsmen are descendants of once-nomadic people who were scattered across the area far north of Sweden, Norway. Finland Northwest corner of Russia. Until the 1960s, members of this indigenous minority discouraged reindeer flocks, and the church and state suppressed their language and culture.
At least there is in Sweden alone 20,000 people Along with Sami’s heritage, there is no official count as ethnic census is against the law. Today, the village of Sami, known as Sammy, is a business entity directed by the state, which determines the number of half the reindeer each village has and where it can roam.
Sami Council member Stephen Michaelson said:
In Gabuna village, Kumnen oversees about 2,500-3,000 reindeers and 15-20 hermits. A total of about 150 families rely on business revenue.
Even before the discovery of Geijer Per Per Deposion, they had to contest the expanding footsteps of Kiirunavaara. The world’s largest underground iron mine, forced village herdsmen to guide reindeer through longer, stiffer transition routes.
Mining can reduce dependence on China, but it can hurt Sami’s herdsmen
Swedish officials and LKAB, a state-owned mining company, say the Geijer mine proposal could reduce Europe’s dependence on China on rare earth minerals. LKAB hopes to begin mining there in the 2030s.
In addition to being essential to Many types of consumer technologyRare earth minerals are also considered, including mobile phones, hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles. It’s important to shift the economy It’s moving away from fossil fuels towards electricity and renewable energy.
However, if work on Geijer Per Per Per moves forward, Kuhmunen said there are no other routes for Gabna herdsmen to take the reindeer east in the summer from mountains to grazing pastures full of nutritious lichens.
The village fights the mine in court, but Kumnen says he is not optimistic.
“It’s really hard to fight the mines. They have all the resources, they have all the means. They have the money. We don’t have it,” Kumnen said. “We have only a will to exist. To hand these pastures to our children.”
Darren Wilson, LKAB’s Senior Vice President of Special Products, said the mining company is looking for a solution to help Sami’s herdsmen, but he said he would not speculate on what they were.
“There are potential we can do, we can explore and we must remain attractive,” he said. “But I’m not underestimating the challenge of doing that.”
The impact of climate change on reindeer breeding
Climate change is wreaking havoc in traditional summit reindeer breeding.
Global warming has brought rain instead of snow during the winter in Lapland, Sweden. Freezing rain traps lichens beneath a thick layer of ice Where hungry reindeer can’t reach foodaccording to Anna Scarin, a reindeer breeding expert and professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
In summer, mountain temperatures rose to 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), causing the reindeer to overheat, and they couldn’t spend enough money to gain the weight they needed to maintain in the winter.
Some Sweden recommends carrying reindeer on trucks and ferrying them between the pastures if the Geijer Per Giner mine is being built. However, Scarin said that it is not feasible as animals eat while they are moving and relocating deny that food will be grazing while walking from one area to another.
“So you’re like taking away the travel routes they’ve traditionally used for hundreds of years,” she said.
For Kuhmunen, it also means the end of the Sami tradition passed down by the generation of reindeer herdsmen on this land.
“How can we tell people what we’re doing now and that it won’t exist in the near future?” he said.
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Pietro de Cristofaro, located in Kirna, Sweden, contributed to this report.
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