By AFP - Agence France Presse
Green energy projects add to the Sami people's climate problems: Amnesty
Oslo (AFP) - Climate change and efforts to control it by moving away from fossil fuels are threatening the rights and livelihoods of indigenous Sami peoples in the Arctic, Amnesty International said Friday.
There are around 100,000 Sami - considered to be Europe's last indigenous population - many of whom live off traditional reindeer herding, which requires vast open spaces.
But the expansion of infrastructure for renewable energy production and mineral extraction is damaging their ancestral ways of life, said the report, which Amnesty International produced in partnership with the non-governmental Sami Council.
“Climate change threatens the culture and existence of the indigenous Sami people in two ways,” said the report.
“Firstly, through direct environmental impacts, such as changes in climatic conditions and ecosystems, and secondly, through the increasing number of energy projects and resource extraction... in the name of 'green' development and the 'clean' energy transition.”
The Samis and their migratory herds are spread across the vast open spaces of the Arctic in Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden.
The report - entitled “Just transition or ‘green colonialism’?” -- The report - entitled “Just transition or ‘green colonialism’?” - gives the example of the wind farms in Fosen, Norway, where 151 turbines were installed in what opponents said was traditional reindeer habitat.
The Norwegian Supreme Court later ruled that the construction of the turbines was illegal since there were no valid permits and that it was violating the rights of the Sami people, as granted by the United Nations.
Arctic warming
The case triggered a large mobilization of environmental and Sami activists, who demanded that the turbines be demolished.
The case ended with a financial settlement with the herders.
The report highlighted other conflicts around mining projects in the Swedish village of Ronnbac and in Kasivarsi, Finland - both of which threaten reindeer herding, according to the report.
Amnesty and the Sami Council called on the authorities in the Nordic countries to increase consultations with the Sami populations and seek their agreement before granting any new infrastructure projects that could infringe on their rights.
These disputes are added to the direct effects of climate change, which in the Arctic is manifesting itself three or four times faster than anywhere else in the world.
Among other challenges, temperatures are rising, with “frequent temperatures around 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit)”.
If rain falls on existing snow, it freezes and forms an ice crust on the surface, which means that the reindeer cannot reach the lichen, their main source of food.
The early melting of the ice means that river crossings are not covered by sufficiently solid ice or are flooded, which makes migration for herds and reindeer dangerous or even impossible.
phy/ef/djt
Comments