wayfinders circle governance report english - Flipbook - Page 33
c) The Sámiid Riikkasearvi |
SWEDEN
Established in 1950, the Sámiid Riikkasearvi (National Association of Sámi) in Sweden is composed of 17 member
associations and 44 Sámi reindeer herding communities who inhabit a terrestrial ecosystem in a sub-arctic and
mountain/tundra region. Taking up vastly expansive areas, reindeer herding is the biggest traditional livelihood of the Sami
people and their center of culture and society. Occupying 40 percent (180,180 square kilometers) of Sweden, the Sámiid
Riikkasearvi safeguards and promotes the economic, social, legal, administrative, and cultural interests of the Sámi with a
special focus on their reindeer husbandry.
Their highest deciding body is the annual Riikkacoahkkin, or “National Meeting”, where members elect the chair and
members of the board. The members approve the finances and adopt the yearly action plans. The Riikkacoahkkin board
meets five times a year. The organization is built on the principle that each reindeer herding community has the right to its
area and right to decide its own matters. The reindeer herding areas are divided into regions, each with its own representative
to the board. The Riikkacoahkkin also has a youth council of young reindeer herders, and they are represented at board
meetings where capacity-building and activities for reindeer herding youth are given attention.
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RANGELANDS
The reindeer herding communities consist of Sámi families with their own small family reindeer herding trade. The members
of the community elect representatives from different families to the board that handles the member family’s common
concerns. There are 44 Sámi reindeer herding communities in Sweden and all are Riikkacoahkkin members. The
Riikkacoahkkin is a member organization of the broader Sámi Council. Each reindeer herding community is an independent
legal entity. Within the community, reindeer herding families each have their own herds, and the tradition passes from
generation to generation.
Sweden has not recognized Sámi rights to land and waters even though numerous state-appointed investigations by legal
experts have stated that the Sámi right to their territories is valid. In 1993, Sweden issued a reform that deprived the reindeer
herding communities of influence on hunting management systems. In 2006, the Riikkacoahkkin investigated legal options
to sue the Swedish state in order to gain small game hunting and fishing rights. They decided to focus on the Girjas reindeer
herding community, and in January 2020 the Supreme Court ruled that the Girjas had an exclusive right to small game
hunting and fishing; and stated that the Girjas community had the sole right to manage the rights to hunting and fishing and
to lease these rights to others based on possession of this territory since time immemorial.
The Sámi show how governance is integrally linked to resource management, subscribing to their long-standing principle of
not using more than one needs. The Sámi have progressed significantly at securing and protecting reindeer grazing,
upholding sustainable management systems, ensuring local management based on the needs of local Sámi reindeer herding,
and revitalizing Sámi societal structures and Sámi spirituality; all to secure the future of Sámi culture.
https://www.iwgia.org/en/sapmi/4248-iw-2021-sapmi.html
SámiiD
Riikkasearvi
GOVERNANCE REPORT
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APRIL 2022
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