"'We borrow our lands from our children’: Sami say they are paying for Sweden going green", 10 Aug 2022

In Sweden’s Arctic north, the Sami (or Sámi), one of Europe’s most distinct Indigenous communities, are facing the loss of their culture, livelihood and identity, they say, due to a failure to respect their rights.

Forestry and large-scale hydropower – 80% of which is on Sami land – has shrunk winter grazing areas. Sixty years of logging and clearing has meant forests rich in lichen, traditional grazing for reindeer, have declined by 71% in Sweden...

Sweden [...] has invested hundreds of billions of kronor in its northernmost counties, Norrbotten and Västerbotten, where Hybrit, a fossil-free steel initiative, and H2 Green Steel, two coal-free power plants, a gigafactory for electric vehicle batteries, and a host of windfarms to power them, are planned.

But a growing backlash against the country’s green transition and its effect on the Sami people is shining a spotlight on its failure to uphold Sami rights...

UN rapporteurs have condemned its failure to obtain the prior and informed consent of the Swedish Sami, over the irreversible threat it poses to their lands, livelihoods and culture.

In December 2020, the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (CERD) concluded that Swedish law discriminated against the Sami. A legal opinion held that legislation did not enable free and informed consent for the Sami in the permit-granting process for mining concessions.

Unlike Norway, Sweden has not ratified the 1989 indigenous and tribal people’s convention, which would uphold Sami rights. It only formally recognised the Sami language in 2000.

Jenny Wik Karlsson, senior legal adviser for the Swedish Sami Association, and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation are considering legal action against the government’s decision to grant a permit at Gállok...

Beowulf Mining argued the pit would benefit Sweden’s green transition, by ensuring a domestic source of iron for coal-free steel. The mine was in the public interest, the government said, and permission included “far-reaching conditions” to counteract disturbances to reindeer husbandry, and commitments to pay for lorries for migrating animals, compensate herders, restore the land afterwards and consult with those most affected, the Sirges and Jåhkågasska tjiellde Sami herders...

Nine out of 12 mines in Sweden’s north are located on Sami land, including the largest iron-ore mine in the world, in Kiruna, and one of the EU’s largest copper mines, at Aitik, outside Gällivare. In February, the supreme court gave the Aitik mine the green light to expand, despite opposition from herders and environmentalists, with a new, 1km-long pit...