Grazing land or mines - conflict of interests in Norrland

Tom Mels is Associate Professor at Department of Human Geography and coordinates the undergraduate planning program on Campus Gotland.

He collaborates with colleagues in many disciplines, from lawyers to ecologists and political scientists. They are working with conflicts of interest and conflicts involving natural resources in Norrbotten and Västerbotten, for example whitin the mining industry.

– The Sami have a great interest in maintaining certain biological
features in the landscape and that the reindeer can graze peacefully. When there is a lot of activity in the land, they are disturbed. which makes reindeer husbandry impossible in many areas. This requires adaptions and it's often hard to achieve.

Conflicts of interest are common

Conflicts of interest like these are common when it comes to
exploiting natural resources. There are many conflicts
around how to exploit or whether to exploit these
natural resources at all, Tom Mels explains.

– It creates conflict in the land, around forestry, mining, power production of various types. We are interested in learning how planning around these issues can be improved.

The research is based on interviews with among other reindeer herders and on workshops where issues and possibles solutions are discussed.

Improving consultations and legislation

For example, how to improve consultations but also how the rules and legislation around mining could be improved.

– There is a lot of talk about justice these days, but not about justice in
exploitation of natural resources. Justice also involves the
rights of indigenous people. Since we research Sami territory,
indigenous rights are essential. They are connected to the land and especially to the exploitation of natural resources, says Tom Mels.

Annica Hulth