Reindeer Husbandry Trends: Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Western Finnmark

Abstract

AbstractNenets Autonomous Okrug (Nenets AO) in Russia and Western Finnmark in Norway are two large reindeer husbandry regions in the circumpolar North. The Soviet Union pioneered the industrialization and collectivization of reindeer husbandry in Nenets AO in the 1930s, while structural and rational practices of Sámi pastoralism in Western Finnmark started in the 1970s. Both regions aimed to increase meat production by manipulating the herd size and structure, seasonal calf slaughtering, changing reindeer ownership, and introducing novel labor standards such as shift working, housing programs, and mobile cabins for the herders. Experimental science of rational reindeer husbandry in the Soviet Union might have inspired reforms and a new model for reindeer husbandry established in Norway in 1976. This paper analyzes trends in reindeer husbandry in Nenets AO and Western Finnmark in light of these structural changes. An increase followed the expanded proportions of females during these periods of change in the total number of reindeer in both regions. However, we observed significant differences between trends in reindeer husbandry in Nenets AO and Western Finnmark. We conclude that while Norway implemented an adjusted version of the Soviet model with as much as 90–95% females in the herd and started slaughtering calves instead of adult females and 1.5 years old males, Soviet structural and rational practices never encompassed more than 65% females. Before this reform, 45% of the herd in Norway were traditionally females. Trend analyses in Western Finnmark and Nenets AO indicate that Norway’s extreme implementation of the new reindeer husbandry model increased the variability of calf production in Western Finnmark compared to calf production in Nenets AO. Despite Norwegian subsidies and policies encouraging high female percentages, a regression analysis based on data from 1981–2018 showed a negative correlation between the percentage of productive females and calf productivity in Western Finnmark. The rationale for the change in the management model in Norway in the 1970s was based on the assumption that reindeer herders in the North did not fully utilize the potential of the favorable climate conditions in Finnmark. However, in the past years, winters in Western Finnmark have changed. Increased winter air temperatures and changing snow conditions affect female reindeer. We conclude that Norway’s modernization program for Sámi reindeer husbandry in Western Finnmark resulted in a highly volatile production of reindeer calves that negatively affected reindeer herders’ food security and herding economy. The top-down productivity policy model for reindeer husbandry in Norway was weakly nested within Sámi herders’ traditional cultures and knowledge.