Pogodaev, Mikhail and Oskal, Anders
(2015)
YOUTH.THE FUTURE OF REINDEER HERDING PEOPLES.
Documentation.
Arctic Council.
Abstract
REINDEER have always been and remain the foundation of reindeer herding peoples’ lives. Reindeer provide people with shelter, food, clothing, security and are at the center of herding peoples’ universe, the foundation of their cultures, languages, worldviews and ways of knowing. Reindeer are also the foundation of reindeer herders’ economy. It goes without saying that reindeer herding youth are the future of reindeer peoples everywhere. Reindeer herding is an ancient livelihood practiced across the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions, areas that have recently become the intense focus of development and policy interests, and are predicted to experience dramatic climate shifts over the next decades. Young herders today face an uncertain future. Reindeer pastures are being lost wherever they are and the full range of consequences and impacts of climate change is unclear. The conditions under which they practice herding today will likely be very different by the time they are middle aged. What kind of herding will the coming generations of herders be able to practice? The goal of the EALLIN project is to bring the voice of reindeer herding youth to the Arctic Council: the good, the not so good and most importantly, what young herders want to see changed in order that they can bring their livelihoods into a future which the following generations will want to choose. This report is a summary of one of the deliverables to the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group project ‘EALLIN – The Voice of Reindeer Herding Youth 2012-2015’. The main goal of the project was to maintain and further develop a sustainable and resilient reindeer husbandry in the Arctic, working towards a vision of creating a better life for circumpolar reindeer herders. The full report is available for download at eallin.org. Through this project, over 160 youth from different reindeer herding peoples had the opportunity to meet each other, learning maybe as much about themselves in the process as they learned from their peers. This report is co-produced by the participants of 12 community-based workshops in Norway, Sweden and Russia, China and Mongolia, where herding youth were both organizers and participants.
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