In addition, the State collects a penalty fee if the Herdsmen's Committee exceeds its quota of reindeer per herd on account of failure to sell.

Recent years have seen mass starvation among reindeer.

Under the Reindeer Herding Act, a Herdsmen's Committee consists of all herdsmen in a given area and who are not personally responsible for the performance of the Committee's duties thus, any claim on the Herdsmen's Committee's behalf amounts to an actio popularis.

Despite these conditions, the profitability of reindeer husbandry has not improved, as the companies buying reindeer meat have reduced their prices by up to 30 per cent and have purchased less.

The authors refer to the view of the Lapland and Kemin Sompio Herdsmen Committee's who have previously stated that artificial feeding causes inequalities and disputes within the Herdsmen's Committee, and is regarded as a threat to the old Sami tradition and culture of reindeer husbandry.

At the same time that logging proceeds, reindeer numbers have been reduced because the pastures still available cannot support the previous number of reindeer.

In view of the state of winter herding areas, the present number of reindeer is high.

The Ministry is charged by statute, in determining the maximum number of reindeer, to ensure that the number of reindeer grazing in the Herdsmen's Committee's area in the winter season does not exceed the sustainable productive capacity of the Herdsmen's Committee's winter pastures.

Jonas Vannar shares his experience as a traditional Saami reindeer herder in the video below.

The felling cycle involves a wide range of measures, even the least invasive of which cause harm to reindeer husbandry.

The ongoing and increasing logging of fine lichen forests increases the necessity of providing fodder and threatens the economic self sustainability of reindeer husbandry, as husbandry depends on the reindeer being able to sustain themselves.

3.5 Despite the recent reductions in reindeer herds, the National Forest Park Service continues to conduct logging operations, destroying the Herdsmen's Committee's pastures, and further deteriorating husbandry conditions.

The high numbers of reindeer kept by the Herdsmen's Committee in their herds and the resulting adverse effects on herding lands, increase the need for additional feeding, thereby harming the reindeer husbandry.

For the State party, the Ministry's decision on the permitted number of reindeer does not alone constitute any substantiated evidence of the effects of certain individual loggings, but rather of the effects of the high numbers of reindeer kept in herds.

The Lapponian herder (Lapinporokoira or Lapp Reindeer dog or Lapsk Vallhund) is a breed of dog from Finland, one of three Lapphund breeds developed from a type of dog used by the Sami people for herding and guarding their reindeer.

The State party adds that apart from the number of reindeers per herd, the difficulties of reindeer herdsmen and the poor state of herding lands are not so much affected by forestry as they are by other forms of forest use.

8.4 The National Forest and Park Service invited the Herdsmen's Committee on two field trips in Kippalvaara and Kippalrova in September 2001 and Savonvaara Pontikkamäki in January 2002, at which herdsmen expressed their opposition to the logging proposals.

If, on the other hand, the aim is to engage in reindeer husbandry based purely on natural pastures, then loggings even those notified as relatively mild will be of greater significance for reindeer husbandry that is already in difficulties for other reasons .

After logging, logging waste prevents reindeer grazing and compacted snow hampers digging.

It is also observed that reindeer herdsmen's committees within the Sami often have a mixed composition of both Sami and other Finns as their members.

It also takes into consideration that despite difficulties the overall number of reindeers still remains relatively high.

In the determination of the maximum numbers of reindeer, the principle enshrined in section 21, subsection 2, is applied according to which the number of reindeer in the herds on the lands administered by the Committee may not exceed the sustainable productive capacity of the winter pastures.

An inventory of Alectoria lichen was conducted in the territory of the Lapland Herdsman's Committee in 1999 to 2000, in which it confirmed that the incidence of Alectoria lichen in the logged forest areas is very low, and that logging operations cause considerable harm to reindeer husbandry.

According to a statement given by the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute on 31 January 2002, the operations referred to in the communication do not have any significant additional adverse effects on reindeer herding in the long term if the numbers of reindeer are maintained approximately at their present level.

3.2 As to the effect of the logging on the author's herd, it is submitted that reindeer tend to avoid areas being logged or prepared for logging. They therefore stray to seek other pastures and thereby incur additional labour for the herders.

But it has a certain it has a certain ring to it which is attractive to people who read too much 19th century German literature.

Note Sameby, translated as Saami village in this video, is an economic association of reindeer herders that share a certain geographic area.

Substantive issues Extent to which logging may be carried out by State authorities before it will be considered to violate the rights of reindeer herders

7.8 As to the effects of logging on reindeer herding, the State party notes that it has not been shown that the effects of the earlier logging operations were more than anticipated. Nor was it shown that logging operations would create long lasting harm preventing the authors from continuing reindeer herding in the area at its present extent.

We learn about all this at the same time as we are told about Father Christmas, his Lapland reindeers, and his sacks full of presents.

Today, wild reindeer have disappeared from many areas within this large historical range, especially from the southern parts, where it vanished almost everywhere.

3.4 The authors recall that the maximum number of reindeer that may be kept by the Herdsmen's Committee is decided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Nor may the reductions in reindeer be considered a justification for not pursuing domestic remedies, where such allegations would be examined.

Nine per cent of the entire territory of the Committee is privately owned, and the owners are not subject to the same obligations as the State with respect to reindeer husbandry.

Wildlife on these remote islands is threatened by introduced species, especially on South Georgia, where even large animals, including reindeer, have been brought to the islands.

and concedes that the concept of culture within the meaning of article 27 covers reindeer husbandry, as an essential component of the Sami culture.

7.11 The State party submits that there has been regular contact between the authorities and the Herdsmen's Committee in the form of letters, negotiations and even various on site visits.

During their field work in Norway, Disney's team, for inspiration, visited Rørosrein, a Sámi family owned company in the village Plassje that produces reindeer meat and arranges tourist events.

The State party argues that the significant increase in the number of reindeer kept in herds in the 1980s and 1990s had adverse effects on the state of winter herding pastures.

In two administrative decisions within two years, then, the Ministry considered that the sustenance of winter pasture in Muotkatunturi was so low that the sustainable number of reindeer should be reduced by 15 per cent.

On the issue of substantiation of claims, the authors argue that they have shown that the reductions of reindeer after the Ministry's decisions was a direct consequence of the impact of logging on pasture areas.

8.7 It is submitted that after logging, as reindeer do not remain grazing on managed areas, grazing pressure comes to bear on the remaining territory.

His Government had also established a programme to promote the sustainable economic and social development of indigenous peoples of the North, protect their environment and enhance their productivity, including the provision of housing, hospitals and schools and the promotion of reindeer farming.

While reindeer owners have required the National Forest and Park Service to terminate forestry activities in the land areas administered by the Committee, they did not reduce their own logging operations.

The relevant provisions of the Finnish Constitution are based on the principle that both population groups have, as performers of professional activities, equal status before the law and neither group may be placed in a more favourable position than the other, not even in respect of reindeer herding.