"We need more knowledge to ensure the interactions between reindeer husbandry and industry".

At SLU, research is being conducted to support pastoralists and protect rangelands, both in Sweden and globally. In Sweden, this primarily concerns reindeer husbandry, which faces major challenges from climate change, as well as from the green transition, where wind power, infrastructure development, forestry and mining negatively affect nature-based reindeer herding. Anna Skarin, professor in reindeer husbandry at SLU, works together with researchers, Sámi communities and stakeholders to examine how reindeer husbandry is affected by these factors in the research project REINFORCE and in other former projects on how other land use affect reindeer and reindeer husbandry. Anna's professorship within reindeer husbandry is the only one in Sweden as well as globally, giving SLU a unique opportunity to conduct essential research. 

What are the greatest challenges facing reindeer husbandry today?
Reindeer husbandry is based on a pastoral system in which reindeer herds move across large land areas in search of forage. The pasture is the core resource of the system. For the system to function, undisturbed grazing conditions, access to sufficient forage, and the ability to move between seasonal grazing areas are required. Today, the system is negatively affected by several factors. Climate change is leading to increased stress and reduced access to forage. Together with human-induced factors that restrict how reindeer can move in the landscape, the pastoral system is under constant pressure.

The green transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy conflicts with traditional reindeer husbandry in northern Sweden. Mining operations require large land areas, as does the energy needed to produce fossil-free steel, resulting in extensive wind power developments across reindeer grazing lands. The green corridors through which reindeer naturally move disappear or become fragmented, creating stress, reducing grazing peace, and ultimately affecting the entire ecosystem.

What are the solutions?

To identify solutions to the current challenges, it is necessary to consider the specific needs of reindeer in each area. In many cases, this involves restoring land so that lichen—the primary forage for reindeer—can recover, enabling reindeer to access sufficient food and thereby achieve grazing peace. This is the focus of the new research project REINPEACE, led by Heidi Rautiainen, postdoc at SLU. 

It is essential that Sámi reindeer herding communities are involved early in infrastructure development processes. Detailed knowledge is often required to ensure a well-informed land use planning process within the reindeer husbandry area. However, this also put extra pressure on the herding communities with an increase workload to review and assess assessments of new industrial project on reindeer land. Thus, finding ways to inform and improve these processes, where also the local and traditional knowledge of the reindeer herders is considered, is an important part of the research in reindeer husbandry. 

EQUIP - monitor the survival and mortality of reindeer calves

Another research project led by Anna Skarin and her colleagues is the high calf mortality observed in certain areas of Sweden. While a proportion of calves die as a result of predation, calf mortality rates are too high to be explained by predation alone in some areas.

Read more about the research project EQUIP here