The high numbers of reindeer kept by the Herdsmen's Committee in their herds and the resulting adverse effects on herding lands, increase the need for additional feeding, thereby harming the reindeer husbandry.

Under the Reindeer Herding Act, a Herdsmen's Committee consists of all herdsmen in a given area and who are not personally responsible for the performance of the Committee's duties thus, any claim on the Herdsmen's Committee's behalf amounts to an actio popularis.

Subject matter Rights of reindeer herders with respect to logging operations undertaken by the State party

In addition, the State collects a penalty fee if the Herdsmen's Committee exceeds its quota of reindeer per herd on account of failure to sell.

The Ministry is charged by statute, in determining the maximum number of reindeer, to ensure that the number of reindeer grazing in the Herdsmen's Committee's area in the winter season does not exceed the sustainable productive capacity of the Herdsmen's Committee's winter pastures.

Substantive issues Extent to which logging may be carried out by State authorities before it will be considered to violate the rights of reindeer herders

The traditional Saami livelihoods include reindeer herding, fishing, hunting and gathering.

At the same time that logging proceeds, reindeer numbers have been reduced because the pastures still available cannot support the previous number of reindeer.

The State party adds that apart from the number of reindeers per herd, the difficulties of reindeer herdsmen and the poor state of herding lands are not so much affected by forestry as they are by other forms of forest use.

In view of the state of winter herding areas, the present number of reindeer is high.

In the determination of the maximum numbers of reindeer, the principle enshrined in section 21, subsection 2, is applied according to which the number of reindeer in the herds on the lands administered by the Committee may not exceed the sustainable productive capacity of the winter pastures.

3.4 The authors recall that the maximum number of reindeer that may be kept by the Herdsmen's Committee is decided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

If, on the other hand, the aim is to engage in reindeer husbandry based purely on natural pastures, then loggings even those notified as relatively mild will be of greater significance for reindeer husbandry that is already in difficulties for other reasons .

It is also observed that reindeer herdsmen's committees within the Sami often have a mixed composition of both Sami and other Finns as their members.

Many of the indigenous people of the north of Russia are traditionally hunting, fishing and reindeer herding peoples like the Saami.

Nine per cent of the entire territory of the Committee is privately owned, and the owners are not subject to the same obligations as the State with respect to reindeer husbandry.

In addition, the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in considering the maximum permissible population of reindeer per herd, acknowledged the importance and availability of winter nutrition for reindeer Lichenes, Alectoria and Deschampsia and that logging has reduced stocks of the former two foods.

For example, the Komi, Nentsi and Saami people often herded reindeer together within the cooperative structure of the farm.

The authors refer to the view of the Lapland and Kemin Sompio Herdsmen Committee's who have previously stated that artificial feeding causes inequalities and disputes within the Herdsmen's Committee, and is regarded as a threat to the old Sami tradition and culture of reindeer husbandry.

At the outset, they complain that since the 1980s, some 1,600 hectares of the Herdsmen's Committee's grazing area in Paadarskaidi have been logged, accounting for some 40 per cent of lichen (utilized for feeding reindeer) in that specific area.

For the State party, the Ministry's decision on the permitted number of reindeer does not alone constitute any substantiated evidence of the effects of certain individual loggings, but rather of the effects of the high numbers of reindeer kept in herds.

The Ministry's decisions to reduce the Herdsmen's Committee's herd does not substantiate any claim of the effects of individual logging operations.

40. The Saami culture and livelihoods reindeer husbandry, hunting and fishing are today facing threats from the Swedish urban society and its demand for the opportunity to fish and hunt in Saami areas which up to recently have been an intrinsic part of exclusive Saami reindeer herding rights.

So Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer you know it?

You'll leave for reindeers.

The authors and the State party disagreed on the effects of the logging in the areas in question, including the reasons behind the Minister's decision to reduce the number of reindeer kept per herd while the authors attributed the reduction to the logging, the State party invoked the overall increase in reindeer threatening the sustainability of reindeer husbandry generally.

The Saami party, which consisted of a certain number of reindeer husbandry communities, also counter claimed several types of curtailed rights to the areas concerned.

The felling cycle involves a wide range of measures, even the least invasive of which cause harm to reindeer husbandry.

After logging, logging waste prevents reindeer grazing and compacted snow hampers digging.

3.2 As to the effect of the logging on the author's herd, it is submitted that reindeer tend to avoid areas being logged or prepared for logging.

3.1 The authors allege a violation of their rights as reindeer herders under article 27 of the Covenant, both inasmuch as it relates to logging already undertaken and to logging proposed.

3.3 The authors recall that after heavy snows in 1997, herders had for the first time to supply capital and labour intensive fodder for the reindeer rather than rely on lichen.

The State party argues that the significant increase in the number of reindeer kept in herds in the 1980s and 1990s had adverse effects on the state of winter herding pastures.

Both express divergent views on all developments that have taken place since the logging in these areas, including the reasons behind the Minister's decision to reduce the number of reindeer kept per herd while the authors attribute the reduction to the logging, the State party invoke the overall increase in reindeer threatening the sustainability of reindeer husbandry generally.

Since the Committee's Views in the earlier communication, the Ministry has twice reduced the Herdsmen's Committee's number of animals from 8,000 to 7,500 in 1998, and from 7,500 to 6,800 in 2000.

According to a statement given by the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute on 31 January 2002, the operations referred to in the communication do not have any significant additional adverse effects on reindeer herding in the long term if the numbers of reindeer are maintained approximately at their present level.

Despite these conditions, the profitability of reindeer husbandry has not improved, as the companies buying reindeer meat have reduced their prices by up to 30 per cent and have purchased less.

10.6 As far as future logging activities are concerned, the Committee observes that on the basis of the information available to it, the State party's forestry authorities have approved logging on a scale which, while resulting in additional work and extra expenses for the authors and other reindeer herdsmen, does not appear to threaten the survival of reindeer husbandry.

The traditional indigenous way of life includes reindeer herding, fishing, hunting and gathering.

8.8 On the State party's argument that according to the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, the loggings referred to in the communication do not have significant additional adverse effects on reindeer herding in the long term if the numbers of reindeer are maintained approximately at their same level , the authors submit that the State party omitted the last line of the opinion and the deterioration in pastures is compensated by feeding.

7.10 Even after the reductions of the maximum number of reindeer by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in 1998 1999 and 2000 2001, the maximum number of reindeer allowed is more than three times the numbers allowed in the 1970s.

In two administrative decisions within two years, then, the Ministry considered that the sustenance of winter pasture in Muotkatunturi was so low that the sustainable number of reindeer should be reduced by 15 per cent.

15. The material basis for the Saami culture consists of the land and water in the Saami Homeland, which provide the natural resources for the pursuit of the traditional livelihoods of fishing, hunting, gathering and reindeer herding.

It also takes into consideration that despite difficulties the overall number of reindeers still remains relatively high.

26. Under the Soviet regime, the means of production, among them reindeer were collectivized.