Just 4% of Scandinavian reindeer grazing land is free from human activity

Reindeer in Scandinavia are under threat as only 4 per cent of their grazing land is completely untouched by human encroachment, a new study has found.

Intensive forestry, outdoor tourism, road and railway traffic, mining, and wind farms are all contributing to this loss of land.

Dr Regina Lindborg, a professor from the department of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University, co-author of the study and coordinator of the project, said: “Grazing is a key process for maintaining plant biodiversity, even in the mountains.

“So it was important for us to study the extent of these cumulative pressures with having the summer pastures in mind, where grazing takes place.”

While human interaction is a threat to reindeer grazing in the north, they do face other pressures such as predators and climate change.

This isn’t new for reindeer. Herders, policy makers and the scientific community are all aware of these issues.

Ms Stoessel said: “What is new is the fact that we finally managed to get an overview of these pressures over the whole area.

“This was not easy, as the different land-uses act at different scales and can be very dynamic, so can be the predators, and the effects of climate change on grazing.”

Read from source:

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/reindeer-habitat-scandinavia-b2183075.html