"they have killed almost all natural predators from that area" Of course they have, are they lacking intelligence?
Domestic livestock predators have always been take out. That's very normal common sense and common practice everywhere unless forced upon by Govt ..
Sami are herders, that is their culture, clearly recognized as such.
Bringing predators back in is obviously another unwanted problem for the Sami and recently farmers of Europe and US to contend with. Their predecessors would have happily kept the predators. But no, because predators tendency to eat livestock if left unchecked in any normal agri business running at low margin is simply perilous to one remaining as the owner of the farm.
The two are incompatible anywhere. Let foxes roam the hen house thinking. Removal of predators is historically normal.
Its like the logging. They didn't do that either and clearly nor do they necessarily want it other was they court case wouldn't exist..
Sami never clear felled for herding.
Comparably landscape altering is reducing diversity. Clear felling is new and more disruptive in a land where it takes over a century to just grow willow a few meters tall.
By ignoring Saami rights in favor of maximum profit, Metsähallitus’ unchecked logging resulted in the disruption of traditional pasture cycles, decimation of the central winter food source of hanging horsetail lichen for grazing reindeer, and according to assessments published by the Finnish Environmental Institute and Red Data Book for Finland, the endangerment of 70 percent of national forest habitat types and the near extinction of countless forest species. The government and the corporation repeatedly denied Saami requests for proper protection and demarcation of their vital forests in northern Lapland, failing to implement the already weak conservation standards of Finland’s Forest Act. Instead, Metsähallitus was merely asked to “collaborate” with reindeer herders—a process that was reportedly limited to informing cooperatives of when and where logging would occur, with no enforced obligation to obtain Free, Prior and Informed Consent before the clear-cutting.
The rest of the article says it all.
The claim because there is a modern chainsaw and Volvo harvester going.. life has changed for the Sami so they can piss off. I actually know that some will think that living in a country that obviously took that path. Albeit with a cross saw, match and horse last century.
Improving their standard of living and fairly new behavior waters down their claims? Perhaps include radios for AM/FM in their homes... is not sufficient to disqualify their claim to the continual habitation and continued culture.
Move in some others, waters it down. No. They are still there being Sami. I assume the concept is new. It took a century here and in aforesaid jurisdictions for it to be understood and addressed, they are still learning.
How about population minority caused by the indigenous nearly literally die out and the influx of immigrants created imbalance. So if there is not many of them around they don't have just claim.
That has zero in relation to continued indigenous claim apparently. If they move off and no longer take resources as they did so in the past their claim is broken.
Sami obviously do not have that problem.
So my thinking is their claim apparently is fee simple owners given precedence of court decisions of such claims, definition of listening is that Sami would have have fee simple legal standing and determine what happens without "negotiation" or by resorting to take the companies and Govt to court...where they apparently have been successful and resorted to publicizing the case vs a German wood company buying the Govt loggers wood to in turn leverage the Govt.
This may sound unfair to hunters and loggers who want to get in there and do their personal thing freely.... Been there and seen that and benefited from colonialism fully.
However they do need to listen to Sami, to clarify in the context of what has passed through court systems. Comparably the Sami are boss according to compelling evidence should be legally more than just demarcation but surveyed and gazetted fee simple... In my view.
At the end of the day to practically clear fell slowest growing trees for timber on the most marginal regeneration land is environmental depleting for a few dollars more. Yet they complained about the Amazon.
"On Friday, Finland, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Council, called for the EU to look into the possibility of banning Brazilian beef from its markets due to devastation caused by the wildfires. "