On a gusty mountain crest, the Jama brothers weave between wind turbines that stretch as far as the eye can see on what used to be their animals’ winter pasture.
For these reindeer herders, the turbines have to go.
“Before, the area was perfect for our reindeer. The place was pristine, unspoiled by human activity. Now, everything has been ruined for years to come,” said Leif Arne, the younger of the brothers, at the wheel of his 4x4.
Photo: AFP
On both sides of the arctic polar circle, members of Northern Europe’s Sami minority are opposing large-scale wind farms and other “green” infrastructure projects, which they say are threatening their livelihoods and encroaching on their ancestral traditions.
In a groundbreaking verdict in October last year, the Supreme Court of Norway ruled that two wind farms on the Fosen Peninsula harmed the rights of six Sami families — including the Jamas — to practice their culture, breaching the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
With four smaller, neighboring installations, the two wind farms — Storheia and Roan — make up Europe’s biggest land-based wind park, with a total capacity of 1,057 megawatts.
While the 11 Supreme Court judges unanimously declared invalid the operating permits and expropriation authorizations that paved the way for the construction of the 151 wind turbines, they did not say anything about what should happen to the structures now.
For the Jama brothers, whose family has been reindeer herding for generations, there is no doubt about the matter.
“These turbines have to be dismantled,” they said.
They said that the Storheia wind park, completed in 2020, deprives them of the best of their three winter grazing grounds, which they use alternatingly.
Reindeer are nomads that roam, depending on the season, to find lichen, their main source of nourishment, especially in winter.
If they are disturbed by the wind turbines, they will look elsewhere.
With his lasso strapped to his shoulder, elder brother John Kristian scans the vast, snow-blanketed horizon with his binoculars.
Not a reindeer in sight.
“It’s impossible for the reindeer to come here now, with all the enormous disruptions caused by the turning and turning of the turbines, which scare them. And they make so much noise,” he said. “There are also car parks, roads, crossings... Nature has been completely destroyed here. There’s nothing left but rocks and pebbles.”
Before the ruling, a lower court had recommended that the loss of the land be compensated financially, to allow herders to buy fodder for their animals.
They rejected that option outright.
“The reindeer have to find their own food. If we give them feed, it’s not traditional herding anymore,” Leif Arne said.
If nothing is done, the lack of grazing grounds means the Jamas will have to reduce their herd size — the number of which they do not disclose publicly because “that would be like broadcasting how much money you have in the bank.”
At 55, Leif Arne is already struggling to make ends meet.
He told the courts that his business turned a profit of less than 300,000 kroner (US$34,000) in 2018.
Reducing his herd would threaten the viability of his operation.
Meanwhile, the turbines continue to spin, despite the court ruling.
“We take the Supreme Court ruling very seriously... We, of course, want to rectify the situation,” said Torbjorn Steen, spokesman for Fosen Vind, the consortium that operates most of the wind farm.
“The next step is to define operating conditions that guarantee we’re able to operate the wind turbines without violating the herders’ rights or threatening their herding,” Steen said. “What we are prioritizing now is to have a dialogue with the herders.”
The Norwegian state — the main shareholder in the project through publicly owned energy group Statkraft — now finds itself in a bind.
How does it respect the legal ruling and protect the Sami’s rights without compromising its huge economic interests — the six Fosen wind farms cost a total of more than 1 billion euros (US$1.13 billion) — nor slowing down an already sluggish green transition?
Storheia and Roan alone accounted for more than 20 percent of the wind energy produced in Norway in 2020, Fosen Vind data showed.
For now, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, which granted the concessions since declared invalid, has said that more expertise is needed.
“We haven’t decided whether the installations can stay in place in part or in full,” Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Marte Mjos Persen told reporters.
That has frustrated the Sami, who see the delay as a stalling maneuver that allows the turbines to continue to operate, or worse, a way to circumvent the ruling.
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