The holiday season in many countries means a large family dinner, and in the ‘anglosphere’ this often means eating a large turkey. In Finnish Lapland, it would be far more common for folks to sit around a large piece of reindeer (Santa’s reindeer notwithstanding). Of course, we happily live in a world where there are all kinds of dishes that
An important new publication with substantial input from CHARTER researchers has landed which is a pilot study on the reindeer impact on soil carbon storage which revealed that animal impacts are very different for permafrost and non-permafrost areas but that they facilitate more productive vegetation. Titled ‘Impacts of Reindeer on Soil Carbon Storage in the Seasonally Frozen Ground of Northern
In mid-August, 2023, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) and University of Hamburg (UHH), together with the County Governor of Trøndelag and Innlandet, arranged a workshop in the South Saami Reindeer area Plassjesne in Rossen tjïelte (Røros). This workshop was part of a series of workshops and outreach initiatives in the CHARTER project. This region of reindeer herding is
A decade ago, heavy winter rains washed over the Yamal Peninsula in Northwest Russia, killing 60,000 reindeer and ruining livelihoods. Philip Burgess and Irina Wang have created a StoryMap that tells the story of Tokcha Khudi. Tokcha is a Nenets reindeer herder who, along with his family, has herded reindeer across the tundra of the Yamal peninsula his entire life
Towards the end of last year, the CHARTER project, in collaboration with a number of other projects (POVAUS, CLIMINI and POMURI) organised a workshop in Inari in connection with the Reindeer and Fish Science Days (Poro- ja kalapäivät). The objective of the interactive workshop was to examine and discuss the current state and future developments of reindeer husbandry and how
A new CHARTER publication has just been published. Titled ‘The ecosystem effects of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in northern Fennoscandia: Past, present and future’, the paper is lead authored by Sari Stark and has input from multiple other CHARTER project researchers. Significant highlights include: From the abstract: The semi-domesticated nature of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L.) makes it a distinct case among
A new CHARTER publication has landed! Titled “Reindeer herding statistics in Russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect, the paper is authored by Kirill V. Istomin , Roza I. Laptander and Joachim Otto Habeck. The paper is published in the journal Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice. From the abstact: Official reindeer herding statistics are an invaluable source of data
