The Muonio Sámi Village is located in the northmost part of Sweden, bordering Finland. Their reindeer pastures cover 3,460 square kilometres in Pajala municipality with permits to keep up to 3,900 reindeer in winter.
Reindeer herding forms the basis of traditional economy for the Sámi and is an integral part of the Sámi identity. Traditional reindeer herding is dependent on expanses of old-growth forest, which provide shelter and the main source of food supply in the form of ground and hanging lichens.
Sweden’s largest forest company, state-owned Sveaskog, has repeatedly ignored Sámi rights and logged old growth forest in areas vital to reindeer husbandry around Muonio Sámi village. Sveaskog has recently stopped all prior consultations with the native community before conducting logging operations. Muonio Sámi community and Greenpeace demand that Sveaskog immediately halt all logging in the area until consultations are resumed with the Sámi community, in the format that is acceptable for the community.
Greenpeace Nordic also demands that the Swedish government amends Sveaskog’s ownership directive to ensure that the company stops unsustainable logging practices, protects old-growth forest and fully respects the rights of the Indigenous Sámi peoples.