Climate change and green colonialism in the Sápmi

How can an Indigenous culture in the Arctic adapt to rapid climate change and shifts in biodiversity? The cultural knowledge and skills that have kept Indigenous cultures alive in harsh conditions are facing a daunting challenge. Indigenous Saami culture is adapting—but as KLEMETTI NÄKKÄLÄJÄRVI writes, the process is resulting in the loss of cultural knowledge and skill.

The international community has promised to halt warming from climate change at 1.5°C. But the land of the Saami—the Sápmi—has already warmed more than that, and the warming continues.

Saami reindeer herders report that changes in climate and biodiversity are accelerating. The Arctic is greening, with trees and shrubs slowly conquering the tundra and replacing the lichen. In addition, climate mitigation has brought a new, serious threat to the Sápmi: green colonialism. Climate mitigation measures—such as wind turbines and mines to unearth minerals for the green industry—are challenging Indigenous Saami in their struggle to adapt.

A changing landscape

For example, pine trees are encroaching on the northern Sápmi region. Their invasion means less room for lichen, a key food source for reindeer. It also affects snow formations, melting and the landscape.

“I tear off the seedling roots whenever I see them in the mountain region,” one Saami reindeer herder told me. “But there are hundreds more every year, and we can’t remove all of them without help.”

I have lived all my life in Sápmi. There were no spruce trees in my home region when I was a child. Now there is a whole forest of them. The changes brought about by the climate crisis are not only environmental, but also affect livelihoods, cultures and even languages. Changes in vegetation, seasonality, temperature, weather conditions, precipitation, and wildlife behaviour—and an increase in extreme weather events—have all been observed by Saami reindeer herders.

Climate change has also made the work of reindeer herding more difficult both physically and mentally. In recent years, such as from 2019 to 2021, many reindeer died due to difficult winter conditions and predation, leaving only a few to sell. As another herder concluded, “Climate change is a great threat to reindeer Saami culture because it is the reason why young people are hesitant to start reindeer herding. They fear the effects and the future. And if they don’t start, then our reindeer herding culture will disappear.”

Bearing an excessive burden

As the effects of climate change accelerate, the debate about how to fairly share the harms and benefits is intensifying. Saami feel they are being asked to bear too much of the burden. For example, climate mitigation efforts are driving a voracious need for the minerals needed to power batteries for electric vehicles. There are now wind turbine parks in the Sápmi area and new plans for wind turbines and more mines, and these initiatives are likely to accelerate.

The question is: who pays the multidimensional price of climate change—the harmful environmental and climatic changes, the effects of adaptation and mitigation? According to one herder, “Finland is working very hard to become a leading green economy. So it is trying to cut down pine trees in the Saami region and planning mines so the people of the South can drive electric cars and compensate for greenhouse gas emissions. But it can’t go that way.”

What are the cultural limits to adaptation?

Reindeer herds need expansive grazing lands to survive—and reindeer herders have already had to hand over more and more of their lands to tourism, to the forest industry and to infrastructure. But the Saami do not consider it fair that their territories should be used to solve the climate mitigation challenge for the whole of Europe. Ever since colonialism, from the 1500s onward, the resources of the Saami homeland have been sought after to meet the needs of the state, the church, industry, hydropower, tourism and more. The colonial land grab continues in this time of climate change.

But there are limits to adaptation. How much can a culture adapt before it loses its uniqueness? This is a question that Saami, like other Indigenous Peoples around the world, must address in their everyday lives. The Saami did not cause climate change and are not contributing to its progression, yet are the ones who are suffering from it the most.

Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other research papers have begun to focus more on the social and cultural impacts and inequalities of climate change and adaptation measures. Environmental activists, Indigenous Peoples and states affected by rising sea levels have made a significant contribution to the discussion. But to meet the challenge, action is urgently needed. Herders are afraid of what the future will bring to the Saami and Saami culture. A key question is whether Saami traditional knowledge, the Saami way of practising reindeer herding, and the Saami way of life will be preserved in a changing climate.

Climate mitigation and adaptation measures are not sufficient for Indigenous Peoples. We need concrete actions to stop the world from warming and stop the cultural loss. The genuine participation of Indigenous Peoples in these discussions, along with state subsidies, research collaboration and monitoring, are needed.