Management of reindeer husbandry in Norway – power-sharing and participation

• Published in: Rangifer
• Main Author: Birgitte Ulvevadet
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2008
• Subjects: co-management; corporativism; user-group involvement; co-operation; politics; Animal culture; SF1-1100; Norway; Rangifer; reindeer husbandry; sami
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7557/2.28.1.156; https://doaj.org/article/2ad01a7fddd44a839e6fb1f85ac96c47

Many governments have come to realize that the best way to manage natural resources is to include the resource users in order to increase legitimacy for governance. For the Sami reindeer industry, the Norwegian government has implemented two different management models in order to meet this challenge. On the one hand, there is a corporative management model where a few democratically elected reindeer owners represent the whole industry in the annual negotiations with the government. On the other hand, there is a co-management model where reindeer owners are represented in boards at the local, regional and national levels where the government has delegated a number of management functions. In addition, there is also a hierarchical administrative management system, with only public officials as employees. Nevertheless, through media, surveys and interviews, there has been observed some dissatisfaction among reindeer owners; they claim that the system is not inclusive. I argue that the election of reindeer owners to the different co-management boards and the election of reindeer owners to the corporative units have been challenging because it is difficult to establish systems of representation that are fair for everyone. I also argue that it is complicated to make such comprehensive systems work in practice, as initially planned on paper. Abstract in Norwegian / Sammendrag: Forvaltningen av reindriften i Norge – maktfordeling og deltakelse Myndigheter i mange land har erkjent at å innbefatte ressursbrukere i forvaltningsmessige beslutningsprosesser skaper en mer rettmessig forvaltningspolitikk. For å øke medvirkningen for ressursbrukere har norske myndigheter iverksatt to ulike forvaltningsmodeller i den samiske reindriften. På den ene siden er det innført et korporativt system hvor utvalgte reineiere representerer reindriften i de årlige forhandlingene med myndighetene. På den andre siden er det iverksatt et medforvaltningssystem hvor reineiere er representert i styrer på lokalt, regionalt og nasjonalt nivå. ...