Conference:
Abstract: "Looking back on the history of Government intervention in Saami reindeer pastoralism in Norway, I will in this contribution consider the development of reindeer-management -- and its present critical situation in certain areas -- by appliance of the Common Property Theory.
"My research project at the Saami Institute specifically concerns the changing patterns of reindeer management methods in the Helgeland Area in the county of Nordland. Its most general purpose, however, is to uncover the reasons for and the directions of herding-form evolution in Norway in the 20th Century, as exemplified by Helgeland.
"Towards the end of the 19th century Saami herdsmen for the first time were restrained by particular laws and regulations concerning reindeer-management. The Norwegian government at the same time also divided their traditional pastures into 'reindeer-districts,' with a maximum number of reindeer set for each district.
"A Saami herder had always needed to adjust his reindeer-management to that of other herders, and gradually also to Norwegian farming interests. He had, however, been relatively unbound by formal regulations. A new age had now arrived, with changing laws and regulation, and heavy area conflicts with new, expanding Norwegian interests (road- and railway building, mining, dam-building, military activities, tourism). Independently, each of these activities has created problems, but their cumulative effect has caused great damage to the traditional reindeed areas.
"In order to meet these problems the Saami herders have continuously been urged to develop and apply new strategies. The changes in Saami reindeer-management in Norway during the 20th century are, clearly, partly direct results of Government intervention, partly results of Saami strategies in order to adjust to the new conditions and, literally speaking, survive as herdsmen.
"When applying the CPT to the study of the development of Saami pastoralism some key questions must be considered: 1) Are the reindeer pastures -- or have they ever been -- Commons, giving free access to any herdsman? 2) Are there -- or have there ever been -- tragedies (in the hardinian sense) in these pastures? 3) If and when tragedies of this kind have taken place in the Saami herdsman, as implied by Garrett Hardin's theory, or is the following general statement expressed by the Norwegian sociologist Ottar Brox more appropriate as to what has really happened: 'most tragedies start to develop and are attended to when the commons are no longer accessible to the commoner, but only to the select minority that has been able to stay in the rat race for what remains of the free natural resources.'
"When considering the serious problems of Saami reindeer pastoralism in certain areas of Norway today, the question also arises as to who is to blame: The Government, allowing other interests to expand into Saami pastures, ans as a consequence of this had to control reindeer-management by laws and regulations -- or the Saami herdsmen themselves? Another important issue is the question of what kind of knowledge is most relevant with regard to reindeer-management problems: The Governments rational, 'scientific' knowledge -- or the Saamis 'tradition' knowledge, built on hundreds of years of experience."