Det pågår idag två samhällsomvandlingar i norra Sverige, i Kiruna och i Malmberget, till följd av den expanderande gruvverksamheten där omlokaliseringen kräver att ytterligare mark tas i anspråk. Speciella omständigheter råder i Kiruna där särskilda skydd och bestämmelser föreligger som en följd av den juridiska odlingsgränsen. Syftet med studien är att ge ett brett perspektiv på den unika odlingsgränsen och visa på sambandet mellan den och förvärv statlig mark vid samhällsomvandling. För att uppnå syftet utreddes odlingsgränsens historia, samhällsomvandlingarna och riksintressen samt markförvärvsprocessen och hur denna kan förbättras. Metoderna som användes var litteraturstudie, kvalitativa intervjuer och besök gjordes på plats i Kiruna och i Malmberget för att fördjupa kunskaperna.Staten började ta över en stor del av förvaltningen av den skyddade marken redan på 1500-talet och uppmuntrade en inflyttning till norra Sverige. Begreppet odlingsgränsen uppkom under slutet av 1800-talet för att skydda samerna med rennäring gentemot nybyggarna. Dagens samhällsomvandlingar är omfattande och har stor påverkan på omgivningen där aktörerna anser att utveckling ska gå före avveckling. Runt Kiruna och Malmberget finns flera olika riksintressen att ta hänsyn till vid planeringen, till exempel rennäring och gruvnäring. Gruvnäringen får företräde framför de andra riksintressena på grund av nationalnyttan som den medför. Staten äger mycket mark runt Kiruna och för att få förvärva den krävs ett regeringsbeslut. En ansökan om ett sådant förvärv ska prövas hos Statens jordbruksverk, Länsstyrelsen, berörd sameby och Statens fastighetsverk. Med de många instanserna tar processen lång tid och för att effektivisera processen behövs i första hand kompetenshöjning hos aktörerna och bättre kommunikation. Jordbruksdrift var anledningen till att odlingsgränsen uppstod men idag tjänar den sitt syfte för andra näringar, till exempel turism. / Two urban transformations are in progress in northern Sweden today, in Kiruna and in Malmberget, due to expanding mining operations. The relocation of the two cities requires land acquisition. In Kiruna there are specific conditions due to certain protection provided by the so called cultivation border. The purpose of the study is to give a wide perspective on this unique cultivation border and indicate its association with land acquisition. In order to achieve the purpose of the study the history of the cultivation border, the urban transformations and national interests were investigated, as well as the process of land acquisition and how it can be improved. A literature study, qualitative interviews and visits at Kiruna and Malmberget was used to gain knowledge within the topic.As early as in the 1500s, the Swedish government started to take control of the northern parts of the country and encouraged its colonization. The cultivation border was created in the late 1800s to protect the Sami people and their industry from the settlers. The urban transformations are very extensive and have major impacts on the environment. Involved participants want to construct new areas before deconstructing the old ones. There are several different national interests in Kiruna and in Malmberget areas that have to be taken into account in the planning process. Two of those interests are the reindeer and mining industries. The mining industry takes precedence due to its economic benefits to the whole country. The State owns lots of land in Kiruna and in order to acquire it, the government has to give its approval. An application for such an acquirement must be adjudicated by the Swedish Board of Agriculture, the County Administrative Board, affected Sami villages and the National Property Board of Sweden. The high amount of authorities involved makes the process of aquisition long and an improvement to shorten it is to increase the competence of the involved parties and their intercommunication. The purpose of the cultivation border is still considered to be valid, although today for example the tourism is more important than the agriculturing to protect the Sami people.

The primary objective of this thesis was to develop knowledge and understanding about how traditional resources can be used for entrepreneurship and economic development. This was accomplished by systematically studying how the Canadian Inuit, Swedish Sámi and other indigenous people use Rangifer tarandus for enterprise. The Inuit and Sámi are indigenous circumpolar people living in Canada and Northern Europe for more than 4000 years. Rangifer tarandus known as caribou or tuktu by the Canadian Inuit and reindeer by the Sámi has been a key resource for survival. A literature review was conducted relating 1) to Canadian Inuit, Swedish Sámi and other selected circumpolar indigenous people use of caribou or reindeer for enterprise, and 2) indigenous entrepreneurship, particularly from traditional resources, and how this is affected by context and culture. Research methods included descriptive exploratory comparative cases, participative observation, snowball sampling as well as indigenous research methods. Five field sites were visited: Rankin Inlet and Coral Harbour in Nunavut; Inukjuak in Nunavik, Quebec; Happy Valley-Goose Bay/ North West River in Labrador; and Jokkmokk, in Northern Sweden. The thesis explored: 1) Why are the Inuit hunters of caribou and the Sámi herders of reindeer? 2) What were the products and value-added processing? 3) Why have the Sámi successfully sold their meat and products in the international market while the Inuit have only recently begun to do so? 4) How has their culture and traditional knowledge affected the entrepreneurship including innovation and opportunity recognition? 5) What barriers have they faced and how have these been overcome? 6) How have they measured the success of their enterprises? 7) What can they learn from each other? The findings indicated the Inuit and Sámi uses of caribou and reindeer for enterprise were very different. Context and culture were extremely important. Indigenous people living at similar latitudes and making use of a similar species had very different trajectories and outcomes in indigenous economic development and entrepreneurship from Rangifer tarandus. Themes such as resource availability, cultural propensity, remoteness and geographic location, kinship and social capital, infrastructure, measures of success, indigenous knowledge and wisdom, and innovation and adaptation were important. This work made a significant contribution as little consideration had been given to the voice and perspectives of the Canadian Inuit and Swedish Sámi in the emerging field of indigenous entrepreneurship especially as it relates to traditional resources and practices. It also helped to identify other potential commercial uses of caribou thus it provided more potential value added from the commercial harvesting and processing. These opportunities could assist in increasing Inuit employment, income, self-reliance, and community esteem. The research findings have implications for 1) the field of indigenous entrepreneurship, 2) policy makers, and 3) indigenous entrepreneurship education. It provides international comparisons of two indigenous peoples using a similar species and focused on the use of traditional resources and culture as a basis for business creation and operation.

The objective of this thesis was to investigate the effects of mammalian grazers, such as microtine rodents and reindeer, (top-down effects) and nutrient availability (bottom- up effects) on the plant community of a tundra heath. I conducted a large-scale fertilization experiment and studied the impact of grazers using exclosures. I measured the effects of fertilization and grazing on soil microbial activity and nutrient cycling. I investigated the responses to fertilization of the invertebrate community, I studied the effects on the quality of bilberry as food for mammalian herbivores, and I looked at how concentrations of nutrients and carbon-based secondary defences against herbivory fluctuated between seasons in unfertilized and fertilized treatments. The results of my thesis show that the plant community investigated is exposed to a strong top-down control by mammalian herbivores. On the fertilized and grazed areas the aboveground biomass of the vascular plant community did not increase compared to unfertilized areas. However, the productivity of the plant community was clearly nutrient- limited. During the eight years of the experiment, on the fertilized areas plant biomass was significantly increased inside the herbivore exclosures In my study mammalian herbivores at comparatively low densities and grazing outside the growing season were sufficient to control the biomass of a heterogeneous plant community. Microtine rodents (Norwegian lemmings and grey-sided voles) preferred the fertilized areas for overwintering. The food plant quality of bilberry for grey-sided voles was improved on the fertilized areas throughout the year. Grazing decreased the nitrogen storage in the aboveground plant biomass. Reindeer and rodents had also important indirect effects on the plant community by decelerating soil nutrient cycling and soil microbial activity. This effect may be accelerated by the impact of herbivore on plant species composition. Graminoids, which contained the highest nitrogen concentrations in their tissues, increased rapidly on the fertilized areas, but their abundance was significantly lower on grazed fertilized areas. The invertebrate community was detritus-based and received their energy indirectly from the litter via soil microbes and detritivores. Fertilization increased the biomass of invertebrate carnivores, but had no effect on the biomass of invertebrate herbivores. Apparent competition between detritivores and invertebrate herbivores, mediated by carnivorous invertebrates predating on both of them, is supposed to keep the densities and grazing pressure of invertebrate herbivores low. Grazing damage by invertebrates was very low and only 0.021 % of the total vascular plant biomass was removed. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2001, härtill 6 uppsstser.</p> / digitalisering@umu

Craftsmanship is recognised as a source of practical wisdom that can inform sustainable management and use of natural resources. However, there are many outstanding questions about how the skills and tacit knowledge embedded in craftsmanship can facilitate social-ecological resilience for sustainability. It has also proved difficult to access and articulate the knowledge embedded in craftsmanship. With this study I explore the skill and tacit knowledge components of craftsmanship as a repository of cultural-ecological memory through two case studies: the duodji, or handicrafts, produced by a Sámi craftswoman living in Jokkmokk, Sweden, and the fishing style of a fisherman in the Stockholm archipelago. As such, the research has two main aims: 1) to understand how the skills and tacit knowledge embedded in craftsmanship function as carriers of cultural-ecological memory; 2) to explore ways of mobilising and capturing these knowledge types by making them visible through the use of visual methodologies like photography. The research highlights the value of the accumulated knowledge and the portfolio of skills that are components of craft practices. Visual methods, in particular photo elicitation, invite participants to link their craftsmanship to their culture and identity. In doing so, visual methods contribute a new perspective on the role of craftsmanship as a carrier of cultural-ecological memory because the craft practices themselves become reservoirs of tacit knowledge and embodied skills that can be drawn upon in responding and adapting to changes or disturbances in the social-ecological system.

Evaluating the integration of multiple land uses in protected areas by assessing user satisfaction assists in identifying the balance between ecological protection and the socio-economic and cultural needs of local populations. Urho Kekkonen National Park in northern Lapland, Finland, provides an example of such integration through the management of reindeer herding, visitor recreation and conservation within park boundaries. Through use of questionnaires, discussions, observations and maps, the impacts and perceptions of reindeer herding, visitor recreation and park management upon each other were assessed, including their relation to conservation. Results revealed a complex co-existence of the users, based on the intensity of demand for an area and spatial location within the park, with overall benefits from the existence of the national park. Discussion of similar arctic-subarctic land use issues in Canadian parks management made apparent the many commonalities of the concerns among national parks worldwide.

The overall objective of the thesis was to investigate aspects of mental health among Swedish Sami reindeer herders and to deepen the understanding of the experience of the living conditions of young Sami reindeer-herding men. Theories of intersectionality, organisational culture and acculturation were used. Methods A questionnaire covering different aspects of mental health was distributed to the Sami population, including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test, selected parts of the Attitudes Towards Suicide questionnaire (ATTS) and the Job Control Questionnaire (JCQ). 15 interviews with young male reindeer-herders were conducted and analysed according to qualitative content analysis. Results A higher load of anxiety and depression was found in the Sami population, most evident regarding anxiety and among middle aged reindeer-herding men. Regarding alcohol risk consumption reindeer-herding Sami do not in general drink more than a geographically matched reference population, but reindeer-herding men reported a higher proportion of hazardous drinkers, and of teetotallers and periodic drinkers. The reindeer-herding population reported significantly higher exposure to suicide and suicidal behaviour among significant others. Reindeer-herds also reported higher prevalence of different types of suicidal problems. The main theme that emerged in qualitative analysis was ‘Being a young reindeer herder means so many (impossible) dreams and conditions’, and the five subthemes were ‘Being inside or outside is a question of identity’, ‘There is a paradox between being free/unfree’, ‘An experience of different threats and a feeling of powerlessness’, ‘Specific norms for how a ‘real’ reindeer-herder should be’ and ‘The different impacts and meanings of relations’. Conclusions The thesis hypothesizes that the reindeer-herding right as an including, excluding and enclosing historically induced border plays an important part when trying to understand the mental health problems in the group. At present, the situation within reindeer-herding is strained because of practical obstacles and feelings of unfairness and uninfluencability. Furthermore, lack of social support, except from the closest part of the family, and experiences of multi-layered conflicts. This – together with norms of reindeer-herding and reindeer-herders that e.g. say that the reindeer herder is a man who doesn’t show weakness – plays a role in the present mental health problems of the Swedish reindeer-herding population. This applies especially to young and middle-aged reindeer-herding men. / Mental health among reindeer-herding Sami in Sweden

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2003. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2006. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Abstract Deciduous shrubs form the tallest type of vegetation in arctic-alpine areas and are important for ecosystem function. In the southern part of the Eurasian tundra zone, willows (Salix spp.) are the most common species in the shrub layer. In the alpine areas of Northern Fennoscandia, willow shrubs are characteristic to areas between tree line and treeless tundra heaths. Vertical structure and composition of willow-characterized tundra vegetation is affected by a variety of ecological factors including climate and herbivory. In turn, the abundance of the willow canopy affects understory species in several ways that still remain inadequately understood. In this PhD work I describe compositional differentiation of willow-characterized vegetation by using a large data set spanning from north-western Fennoscandia to the Yamal Peninsula in north-western Siberia. I studied environmental factors affecting willow-characterized vegetation and willow growth by using correlative analyses. The factors under investigation were latitude, distance from the sea, depth of thaw, position in the slope, industrial disturbance and reindeer grazing. In addition, I examined the relationships between the shrub biomass estimate and composition and species richness of understory vegetation. The effects of reindeer grazing on vegetation in an alpine forest-tundra ecotone were studied experimentally using reindeer-proof exclosures. I found that willow-characterized vegetation is floristically variable and comprises at least eight vegetation types. The most abundant willow thickets typically have a forb-rich understory. The growth of willow increased along with increasing summer temperatures. However the height of willow was more determined by distance from the sea, thaw depth and slope position. Reindeer grazing decreased the abundance of willow and changed the composition of understory vegetation. In addition, industrial activities were detected to have destructed shrub vegetation and turned it into graminoid-dominated vegetation. Shrub canopies facilitated forbs but decreased the cover of all the other groups including dwarf shrubs, bryophytes and lichens. The species richness of vegetation decreased along with increasing shrub abundance. My study shows that arctic-alpine willow vegetation is more diverse than previously thought. There is a predictable relationship between summer temperatures and willow growth. However, the results also show that there are many factors, both physical and anthropogenic, that are likely to complicate this pattern. Most important of these counteracting effects are industrial activities and reindeer grazing. In the areas where shrubs grow in abundance, the species richness of understory vegetation is likely to decrease and forbs are likely to replace other tundra species.