Transitions in Herd Management of Semi-Domesticated Reindeer in Northern Finland

Abstract

In northern Finland, reindeer-herd management has experienced two major transitions: extensification of intensive herding, and development of supplementary/corral feeding in winter. The transitions were studied in six herding associations in different parts of the Finnish reindeer management area. It was suggested that intensive herding turns into more extensive forms as the reasons for intensive herding (predation, reindeer disappearing to foreign areas, protection of agricultural fields) gradually ceased to exist. The results of the study, based on interviews of elderly reindeer herders, were variable. In the three southern areas intensive herding changed to the free ranging system at the latest during WWII, whilst in the northern areas intensive herding was replaced by extensive herding with the aid of snowmobiles in the 1960s. In the southern herding associations, especially, supplementary/corral feeding in winter was considered necessary, from the 1970s onwards, to compensate for the loss of arboreal lichens associated with forest regeneration.