This video reportage will be presented in connection on the fifth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues held in New York from 15 to 26 May.

More information:
Vice-chairperson of Saami Council Kati Eriksen +358-40-5748686, ke@saamicouncil.net and
Head of the Human Rights unit Mattias Åhrén +47-47379161, ma@saamicouncil.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In northern Lapland, over thousand kilometres north of Finland’s capital
Helsinki, lie the largest remaining wildernesses in Western Europe.
These fjells and forests are the homeland of Northern Europe’s only
indigenous people, the Sámi. The land rights issue in the Sámi homeland
is unsolved.

Traditional free-grazing reindeer herding is the basis of Sámi culture.
During the cold Arctic winter months old-growth forests provide a
lifeline for grazing reindeer. On the old trees grows the arboreal
hanging lichen that is an essential wintertime food for the reindeer.

However, the state-owned forest company Metsähallitus is destroying
important winter grazing forests that are vital to the reindeer. These
forests are destroyed for production of Finnish pulp and paper.

The long lasted conflict between the Sámi reindeer herding and
governments industrial forestry flamed up in the spring of 2005. The
Sami reindeer herders joined with environmental oranisations and started
international campaigning to save the reindeer grazing forests from logging.

The conflict escalated when forestry workers, supported by Finnish
governments forest company, set up their terror-camp next to Greenpeace
Forest Rescue Station in the disputed forests.

This document follows the struggle and events, but also seeks the
reasons behind the conflict.

About the copyrighs: Please contact the producer Elonmerkki/Mr. Hannu Hyvönen.

Produced by Elonmerkki - Signs of Life.
Contacts:
http://www.elonmerkki.net
elonmerkki@kulma.net
tel +358-408317733

For more information on Sámi forests:
http://www.saamicouncil.net
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/forestrescue
http://www.clearcut.fi