Norway Ends Dispute With Reindeer Herders Over Wind Farm

Norway has reached an agreement with Sami reindeer herders that allows the country’s largest wind farm to stay in operation, ending a dispute over Indigenous rights, the energy ministry said.

Norway’s Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the Storheia and Roan wind farms in Fosen in central Norway violated Sami rights under international conventions prompting huge protests last year over the protracted process to implement the ruling.

Meanwhile, an agreement was reached in December with one group of reindeer herders, in Fosen South, while a second group, Fosen North, had continued to oppose the wind farms.

Report says the agreement encompassed the northern group of herders and operator Roan Vind, owned by Aneo, Germany’s Stadtwerke Muenchen, and Nordic Wind Power, the Norwegian ministry said.

A spokesperson for the herders confirmed that a settlement had been signed.

“Miners, steel workers, automotive, food industry, and many other industries are here,” the union’s leader Piotr Duda said through a bullhorn, addressing protesters in front Tusk’s office.

“The most important thing is that we are together because we have one common demand: down with the Green Deal, down with the green venom.”

Tusk has said that market disruptions were not only caused by agricultural products from Ukraine but also those from Russia and its ally Belarus.

On Monday he said Poland planned to ask the European Union to ban imports of agricultural products from Russia and Belarus.

The prime minister has invited farmers leaders for talks on Saturday.

“The deal contains additional land, which we are completely dependent on,” Elise Holtan Pavall of the North Fosen reindeer herder group said.

Roan will pay annual compensation for the continued operations, allowing the turbines to stand, the government said.

“This agreement secures the rights of reindeer herders at North Fosen both now and in the future,” Roan Vind CEO, Roger Beite Faerestrand said in a separate statement.

REUTERS/Christopher Ojilere