Present for WRH were Mikhail Pogodaev (Chair of the Executive Board) and the Director of ICR Anders Oskal. A special bonus was that Elena Walkeapää was able to present the SDWG EALLIN project to the Ministers and discuss the concerns facing reindeer herding youth in a less formal setting (see video below on SVT, in Sami). The EALLIN project will continue into the Canadian chairmanship. You can download the primary documents from the Kiruna Ministerial here on the Arctic Council website

Elena Walkeapaa meets with Arctic Council Ministers

In accordance with the decree, a plan to intensify the implementation of “Recovering the reindeer herding and improving the reindeer herder’s livelihood” program, and a National Council to manage the program nationwide were newly formed. The council will make an annual report of its performance and results in December to both the President of Mongolia and the public.

Minister for Population Development and Social Security, S.Erdene, will be responsible for allocating the monthly money for the reindeer people. Beginning June 1, reindeer family children under the age of 18 will receive money equivalent to 50 percent of the minimum cost of living in the Khangai region, while adults will receive the full sum each month.

Khuvsgul Province Governor, L.Ganbold, will be in charge of improving the efficiency and speed of state services to reindeer people residing in the remote area.

Source: The UB Post. Short URL: http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/?p=4200

Representatives of the indigenous Saami people told Xinhua on Tuesday that they were actively adapting, with “the best knowledge available”, to challenges posed by the changing environment in the Arctic region.

According to the Saami delegation participating the Arctic Council Working Group presentations here in Kiruna, the northernmost Swedish city within the Arctic circle, they were trying to learn the best knowledge and to cope with the challenges, particularly the changing situations for reindeer herding, typical means of the group’s livelihood.

“There were needs, of course, minerals, copper and perhaps cellphones, but one thing we can say for certain is that, the world that people also need food (reindeer products)”, said Anders Oskal, a Norwegian Saami, also director of the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, voicing awareness been raised to the livelihood of his people just before the Eighth Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council.

“The loss of pastures due to infrastructure development, resource exploitation, tourism, etc. are grave challenges for reindeer herds”, Anders explained, unlike farm animals, reindeer migrates freely on natural pastures, and the Saami follow reindeer “in an annual migration from seasonal pasture to seasonal pastures.” “So the access to the pastures is critical to the Saami”, he said.

While actively coping with the challenge of the loss of pastures in the Arctic, adaptation to consequences of climate change seem vital to these indigenous people famously known as “northernmost indigenous people of Europe.”

To this end, Anders believe the Saami should use their best knowledge available.

“We need to try to integrate scientific knowledge with traditional knowledge of reindeer herds or local knowledge, to try to make two plus two become five.”

“By bringing these different forms fo knowledge together, bringing cross-disciplinary research and action, we can probably better adapt to our common future.” said Anders.

The Eighth Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council is scheduled on Wednesday in Kiruna, and approximately 300 people, including ministers, delegates from the eight Arctic states, representatives of indigenous peoples, scientists and observers will participate to discuss issues on the Arctic region

China will be the host of the 5th World Reindeer Herders Congress in July 2013

Source: china.cn.org

One such example is this one by a young woman of a reindeer herding family taking part in their spring migration from the Kautokeino area to the island of Arnøya, near Skjervøy on the coast. Anne Katja Gaup took this video during the spring’s migration of Ardni siida to the coast and we really like it. See below:

Arbugaeva, a native of the Republic of Sakha, has kindly shared a series of her pictures from Sakha which you can view here on our new gallery pages. Arbugaeva has also supplied our front page imagery.

See the photo series from National Geographic here, and visit Arbugaeva’s webpages here.

All our videos and videos that we like and would like you to check out are here, and one of the new features is cross platform display, so that the channel renders correctly for mobile devices.

Great edited footage below from a few years ago from the BBC Bruce Parry in the Arctic series of the Oskal family whose pastures are adjacent to the city of Tromso and who have to deal with multiple challenges on their migrations, as development on the coast has eaten up their pastures and bisected migration routes.

That is why we are pleased to announce the completion of the transfer of the entire activities and events photo gallery of ICR / WRH from 2007 – 2011 to the new website and available for viewing. There is some work needed to integrate it to WordPress, but the heavy lifting is completed! There are 57 galleries and over 2100 images.

View the photo archive here.

You can now review the historic first meeting through a fascinating photo journal that was compiled after this first event. The guest of honour was the renowned ethnographer and adventurer, Thor Heyerdahl. There were meetings, speeches and a number of cultural events such as concert which featured Nils Aslak Valkeapaa and a sporting event, the World Lassoo Throwing Championships, a keenly fought competition that continues to this day. Participants came from 12 regions in Russia and 7 countries.

UNESCO has posted a beautiful photo essay of this challenging endeavour featuring many images of reindeer herders in one fo the regions that is the focus of the Nomadic Herders project.

Stefán Hrafn Magnússon owns and operates the Isortoq Reindeer Station in South Greenland, which herds around 1,600 reindeer. He is looking for men and women aged 16 and older, non-smoking, in good health with a passion for outdoor activities and a positive outlook. The volunteering period is from the end of the current school term until back-to-school time in the fall. It will also include some light fence-repair work.

Volunteers will participate in the herding and slaughtering of reindeer and curing venison. The farm is equipped with its own slaughterhouse and smokehouse. The farm is also near a lake known for good trout fishing. Stefán also places an emphasis on eating sustainably. “People can pick their own menu,” he says. “If you want fish for lunch, then grab a net and go to the lake. We want people to be self-reliant, but also be cooperative and participate in general with the farmers.”

Greenlandic summers are warm and dry, but also have lots of mosquitos. Stefán says that volunteers can make their own schedule while staying there, switching between work and leisure. “Working here is a pleasure but so is just a visit,” he says. “We promise a wonderful summer.”

Interested volunteers should send their CV and cover letter to Stefán at caribougreenland@gmail.com.

(from the Reykjavik Grapevine)

You can read about reindeer herding in Greenland here on the Reindeer Portal