| Summary: | The study of structure and economics in Norwegian reindeer herding is commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food in order to better understand the relations between economic sustainability in reindeer herding and ownership-structure of ownership. Our conclusions are: (1) There is no clear connection between ownership structure and effectiveness in reindeer herding. The main reason is a strong, traditional capacity to cooperate flexibly irrespective of ownership structure. Co-operative groups, named siidas or districts, have long tradition in sami reindeer herding. The effect of flexible organizing is a rational decoupling of efficiency from distribution of ownership to reindeer. The organizational flexibility is also crucial for understanding the sami way of combining private ownership to animals with collective control of rights to exploit pasturage in order to prevent or mitigate “The Tragedy of the Commons”. (2) Values created are distributed exclusively to the benefit of ownership to reindeer with no specific rewards to labor inputs, i.e. practical herding. As flock sizes are strictly limited in response to temporarily destabilized flock numbers causing overexploitation of pasturage in Finnmark county in particular, rewarding large flock numbers adds to the conflict potential. The ceilings on flock sizes deprive small flock holders of natural flexibility for growth and competition on effective herding. The pattern of remuneration thus becomes a threat to future recruitment and long-term competence building. publishedVersion
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