| Reindeer Husbandry in Sweden - Reindeer Herding Areas and Management | | Print | |
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Reindeer Herding Areas
According to the reindeer husbandry Act reindeer herding may be conducted on both private and state lands where reindeer herding is permitted as according to the law. This means that private land owners’ lands also may be used for reindeer grazing. Lands used for reindeer herding are divided into year-round-lands and winter pastures. In the year-round-lands reindeer herding, as the name relates, may be conducted year-round and in winter pastures only between October 1st and April 30th. The Act is clear as to where the line between these lands and pastures lies and defines it accordingly.
The reindeer herding area covers nearly 40 percent of Sweden's surface. The northern border is within Könkämää Sameby in the Norrbotten County and the southern border is in Idre Sameby in Dalarna County. Some Sámi villages in Sweden have during a very long time had summer pastures in Norway. These transboundary rights are based on the so-called "Lappekodisillen" which constitutes an addition to the border agreement between Denmark/Norway and Sweden from the year 1751. The states agreed that regardless of state borders, the reindeer herding Sámi should be able to continue to migrate with their reindeer to the other kingdom in the same way as they had done until the border demarcation. These migrations over the border have since 1751 been regulated in different so called reindeer grazing conventions (renbeteskonventioner) between Norway and Sweden. The last convention was negotiated 1972 and was in force until 2005. Sweden and Norway are negotiating on a new convention.
(Rennäringslagen 1971:437)  Management of Reindeer Husbandry
The management of reindeer husbandry is divided into 3 main levels; the national, the regional and the local level.
 On the national level reindeer husbandry issues are administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Minister of Agriculture is the responsible minister for reindeer husbandry issues. The state has the responsibility for how reindeer herding can be conducted. The Swedish Sami Parliament is the central administrative authority in reindeer husbandry issues and the government's expert authority. The parliament shall for example develop and adopt certain rules for reindeer husbandry as well as handling funding for the promotion of reindeer husbandry.On the regional level the County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen) primarily handles issues that widely affect reindeer husbandry. The Board has for example the responsibility to manage state lands north of the so called ‘cultivation border’* (odlingsgränsen) - lands where many Sami villages have their year round lands, such as important building permits and hunting and fishing applications. The Board will also decide on the maximum number of reindeer for the Sami villages. Year 2007 where some issues concerning reindeer husbandry moved from the Board to the Sámi Parliament. On the local level the Sámi village’s internal affairs, is managed within the framework of the reindeer husbandry Act, dealing with issues such as the Sámi village's economy and the Sámi reindeer herding village's joint work. A Sámi village can have several summer and winter siidat who do the practical work with the reindeer during the periods when the herd is divided.
* The cultivation border is an administrative border which was drawn in 1867 by the state. It separates the mountain regions from the rest of the country. At the time when northern parts of Sweden where colonized by settlers, buildings where not allowed above the cultivation border. In the area above the border the Sami should be able to have their reindeer all year without disruption. (www.sametinget.se) (www.bd.lst.se)
(www.fjallen.nu)
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