LUCSUS Seminar: The Political Ecology of Sámi Reindeer Pastoralism in Norway

28 October 2021 11:00 to 12:00 | Seminar
Welcome to a seminar about the Political Ecology of Sámi Reindeer Pastoralism in Norway with invited guest Tor Benjaminsen (Norges miljø- og biovitenskapelige universitet)
During the last few decades, Sámi reindeer pastoralism in Norway has been said to be in a state of crisis primarily due to excessive numbers of reindeer. A general overstocking of the range is believed to cause widespread pasture degradation, poor economic performance, and increasing land-use conflicts. These are the main assumptions of a dominant narrative shared by key government and non-governmental actors, most scientists, and the media. The resulting policy focuses on forcibly reducing reindeer numbers to set carrying capacities in order to promote ecological sustainability and improve economic performance through the means of increasing carcass weights. Based on a political ecology approach focused on unequal power relations, I will present a critique of the evidence behind the dominant degradation narrative and the associated policy. Both the ecological research in support of this narrative as well as the policy neglect alternative scientific evidence as well as the indigenous knowledge of the reindeer herders. The result has been that alternative perspectives have largely remained invisible in debates about Sámi reindeer pastoralism in Norway. This situation seems, however, slowly to be changing with increasingly more positive attention to reindeer pastoralism in Norwegian society.
Bio
Tor A. Benjaminsen is a Human Geographer and Professor of Environment and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. He uses a broad political ecology framework in his research and teaching, which is focused on issues of environmental governance, land rights, justice, pastoralism, and agrarian and environmental change. Most of this research has taken place in the Sahel, East Africa and South Africa, as well as in Norway. He is a Lead Author of the 6th IPCC assessment report and an Associate Editor of Political Geography.
The seminar is part of the theme Situating Sweden and Scandinavia in the Global.
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