Impact assessment and indigenous rights: Cumulative impact assessment of forestry on winter pastures in Mudusjävri reindeer herding co-operative in Finland

Assessing the cumulative effects of competing land uses on traditional indigenous livelihoods and culture is a critical component of ensuring the protection of indigenous peoples rights. Lack of appropriate methodologies for conducting cumulative impact assessment is a major concern in Sami indigenous communities across Sapmi, the traditional Sami territory covering the northern parts of Finland, Sweden, Norway and parts of north-western Russia. We report from a project in which a new type of GIS based impact assessment methodology was developed to assess effects of forestry on winter pastures of the Mudusjavri reindeer herding co-operative in northern Finland. Winter pasture quality was studied as a function of cumulative impacts from forestry. The aim was to develop a way to measure the level of harm caused by forestry on Sami culture and rights that are protected by national laws and international conventions - in order to assess whether the threshold for significant and hence unacceptable impact has been exceeded. An existing static model for lichen - the main natural winter fodder for reindeer - both for its biomass and growth was used along with mapped forest data to simulate the impacts of forestry on reindeer herding. Our assessment shows that the intensive industrial loggings that started in the 1950s have reduced the ground lichen biomass in Mudusjavris pastures by over 30% by 2020. The yearly lichen production has been reduced by 23 - 31% and the yearly lichen depending on the model version used. The respective cost of forestry for Mudusjavri reindeer herding is approximately 370 - 530 000 {euro}/year which is approximately half of the total turnover of the co-operative. Thus, our study indicates that significant harm has been caused on Sami reindeer herding by other land uses and especially forestry.