[go: up one dir, main page]

IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tth/wpaper/16.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Adapting to Climate Change in Reindeer Herding: The Nation-State as Problem and Solution

Author

Listed:
  • Erik S. Reinert
  • Iulie Aslaksen
  • Marie G. Eira
  • Svein Mathiesen
  • Hugo Reinert
  • Ellen Inga Turi
Abstract
This paper discusses the role of nation-states and their systems of gover- nance as sources of barriers and solutions to adaptation to climate change from the point of view of Saami reindeer herders. The Saami, inhabiting the northernmost areas of Fennoscandia, is one of more than twenty ethnic groups in the circumpolar Arctic that base their traditional living on reindeer herding. Climate change is likely to affect the Saami regions severely, with winter temperatures predicted to increase by up to 7 centigrade. We argue that the pastoral practices of the Saami herders are inherently better suited to handle huge natural variation in climatic con- ditions than most other cultures. Indeed, the core of their pastoral practices and herding knowledge is skillful adaptation to unusually frequent and rapid change and variability. This paper argues that the key to handle permanent changes successfully is that herders themselves have sufficient degrees of freedom to act. Considering the similarities in herding practices in the fours nation-states between which Saami culture is now divided . Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia . the systems of governance are surprisingly different. Indeed, the very definition of what is required to be defined as an ethnic Saami is very different in the three Nordic countries. We argue that timely adjust- ments modifying the structures of governance will be key to the survival of the Saami reindeer herding culture. Since the differences in governance regimes . and the need to change national governance structures . are so central to our argument, we spend some time tracing the origins of these systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Erik S. Reinert & Iulie Aslaksen & Marie G. Eira & Svein Mathiesen & Hugo Reinert & Ellen Inga Turi, 2008. "Adapting to Climate Change in Reindeer Herding: The Nation-State as Problem and Solution," The Other Canon Foundation and Tallinn University of Technology Working Papers in Technology Governance and Economic Dynamics 16, TUT Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance.
  • Handle: RePEc:tth:wpaper:16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hum.ttu.ee/wp/paper16.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sarkki, Simo & Heikkinen, Hannu I. & Herva, Vesa-Pekka & Saarinen, Jarkko, 2018. "Myths on local use of natural resources and social equity of land use governance: Reindeer herding in Finland," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 322-331.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tth:wpaper:16. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shobhit Shakya (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ahittee.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.