22^nd April 2013 PRESS RELEASE

THE SKOLT SÁMI PROVIDE FIRST NATIONAL COLLABORATIVE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE NÄÄTÄMÖ WATERSHED AND ATLANTIC SALMON IN FINLAND

On 25^th April 2013, a new collaborative management plan for the Näätämö/Neiden river will be released in Sevettijärvi, Finland. Majority of the Skolt Sámi people live in this community. The Neiden river flows from Finland to Norway and contains internationally significant population of the Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar).

The co-management plan contains results of a project “Skolt Sámi Survival in the Middle of Rapid Change” that worked from 2009 to 2013, with various manifestations, in the Neiden watershed. It was a cooperation between the Skolt Sámi and other Eastern Sámi communities, the Saa’mi Nu’ett cultural organization and the Snowchange Cooperative. Partners also included the Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Assessment – IPCCA, United Nations University – Traditional Knowledge Initiative and the Sámi Council. The project is part of the international Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Assessment (IPCCA) initiative that is being developed and coordinated by a Peru-based indigenous non-profit organization, ANDES, and supported by UNU.

By applying the IPCCA methodology of community-led self-reflection, evaluation, and future-visioning based on local worldviews and traditional knowledge, the Sevettijärvi Skolt developed a community-based climate change adaptation plan. Out of this process a collective consensus has emerged that the climate change challenges faced by the reindeer, while significant, are manageable given the present-day nature of reindeer herding. Instead, the Skolt Sámi identified their customary salmon fishery, the other half of their traditional subsistence and cultural identity, as a much greater concern.

The co-management plan will be first of its kind in Finland and in the region. It was already partially implemented regarding traditional knowledge observations in summer 2012. The plan includes wide-reaching reforms to the management and harvest of salmon. It also includes the Kven and other local people of the watershed in an unprecedented way – thus the plan is also a renewable resource conflict-resolution tool. Additionally, the work was expanded with the co-funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers to cover additional workshops in the Neiden watershed and the Ponoi watershed in the Murmansk region, Russia. Ponoi is a significant salmon river in the region. As Finland has not ratified Sámi rights to lands or waters despite its international commitments, this Plan is relevant in providing steps in a practical context for the solution of the simmering, on-going conflict using community-based and –relevant tools.

Further details and to order copies of the plan:

Tero Mustonen, Ph D, President, Snowchange Cooperative, Finland, email: tero@snowchange.org, tel. + 358 407372424

25th April 2013 from 12.00 to 16.00 Finnish time, a Seminar is organised on the Future Development of Neiden River – Lunch served

Location: Reindeer farm Toini Sanila, Kirakkajärvi, Sevettijärvi, Finland

A seminar will be organised to release the Neiden River Collaborative Management Plan. This Plan includes far-reaching recommendations and reforms to the administration and future development of Neiden River and the salmon. Report is based on science and the Indigenous and local peoples’ knowledge from the watershed. It builds on a process that begun in 2007 between the Skolt Sámi and other Eastern Sámi peoples (Saa’mi Nu’ett, Skolt Village Council), Snowchange Cooperative, United Nations, Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Assessment, Sámi Council, Nordic Council of Ministers, Murmansk State Technical University, KOLARCTIC-science project and others. Process has been primarily funded by the United Nations and the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Lunch will be served during event. Please register by 20th April 2013 to (tero@snowchange.org, + 358407372424). After the event a village meeting will start at 18.00 to share the results with the Sevettijärvi and Neiden villagers, who cannot take part in the event. Translations organised as needed.

1st February 2013, a broad photo essay publication by the U.N. University was released. The article describes the co-operation between the Skolt Sámi and Snowchange. The article will also be published in the National Geography and Cultural Survival.

Read the article here.

3rd February 2013
Snowchange Cooperative mourns the loss of a prominent keeper of tradition,
fisherman Kalevi Vierikka from the community of Sahalahti, in Häme,
Finland. He passed away on 27th January 2013 at the age of 84. For a
generation of younger fishermen and other members of Snowchange
Cooperative, Kalevis knowledge of waters and forests of Häme, the stories
of fish traps and seining from 1930s and many other intricate details of
Finnish tradition provided inspiration and awe. Kalevi has now passed on
to join Eeva, his beloved wife of over 50 years, in the great beyond.
Snowchange Co-op strives to make sure the oral histories and knowledge
Kalevi passed on to us will be treasured and kept for future generations.

Snowchange also wishes to remember the passing of Innokentii Matchitov
from the Institute of the Indigenous Peoples in Yakutsk, Sakha-Yakutia,
Russia. Kesha, as he was fondly known to friends and colleagues, worked
with us from 2004 to 2010 as a research assistant and interpreter. Much of
his work was devoted to being the personal assistant to the eminent leader
of the Institute, Professor Vasilii Robbek who passed on in 2010.
Snowchange Co-op joins friends and family of mr. Innokentii Matchitov in
celebrating his life work and accomplishments and offers condolences to
the surviving family and colleagues. Mr. Innokentii Matchitov was buried
in Yakutsk on 29th January 2013.