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Sápmi is inhabited by the Indigenous Sámi people and spans the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and large parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Sápmi and the reindeer herding area have been particularly impacted by the acceleration of industrial land-demanding activities such as forestry, mining for rare minerals, and hydro and wind power production, promoted by the Nordic countries towards a low-carbon economy. Together, the so-called “green transition” adds to past and present pressure on nature, contributing to changes in landscapes and affecting both people and biodiversity.
Land-use planning and impact assessments often focus on single projects on a local scale. As a result, planning processes are fragmented, with limited dialogue across sectors and insufficient consideration of cumulative impacts (CI) from past, ongoing, and future activities at relevant scales. Furthermore, Sámi rightsholders experience that their rights and perspectives are not properly understood and considered in planning processes, and in some cases even disregarded. Current research and planning on multiple anthropogenic impacts are also largely limited to local and national contexts, further reinforcing this fragmentation and constraining land-use planning across Sápmi. To assess the impacts of historic and new activities in Sápmi, there is a need for concepts, frameworks, and tools that can address the cumulative impacts of multiple activities across space, time, sectors, and borders, and a stronger knowledge base for just decision-making.
Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA) offers a way forward, aiming to understand the combined impacts of multiple land uses and environmental changes. Here, CIA should be understood as a comprehensive approach that can be integrated into regional planning efforts, instead of as a narrow evaluation of (potential) impacts. This report summarizes concepts, tools, and examples of CIA methods (relevant to reindeer husbandry, in particular). It is based on a review of the academic literature and on a workshop held in Oslo in 2025 with experts from Norway, Sweden, and Finland.