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

So Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer you know it?

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.

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.

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

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.

The ongoing and increasing logging of fine lichen forests increases the necessity of providing fodder and threatens the economic self sustainability of reindeer husbandry, as husbandry depends on the reindeer being able to sustain themselves.

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.

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.

In recent years, because of the lack of natural winter food, the authors have had to rely on artificial reindeer food which requires additional income from sources other than reindeer husbandry, thereby impacting on the profitability of this form of livelihood.

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

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

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.

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 .

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.

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.

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

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.

Nor may the reductions in reindeer be considered a justification for not pursuing domestic remedies, where such allegations would be examined.

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.

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

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.

8.7 It is submitted that after logging, as reindeer do not remain grazing on managed areas, grazing pressure comes to bear on the remaining territory.

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.

Nor was it shown that logging operations would create long lasting harm preventing the authors from continuing reindeer herding in the area at its present extent.

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.

3.4 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.

3.5 Despite the recent reductions in reindeer herds, the National Forest Park Service continues to conduct logging operations, destroying the Herdsmen's Committee's pastures, and further deteriorating husbandry conditions.

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.

While reindeer owners have required the National Forest and Park Service to terminate forestry activities in the land areas administered by the Committee, they did not reduce their own logging operations.

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.

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.

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.

7.8 As to the effects of logging on reindeer herding, the State party notes that it has not been shown that the effects of the earlier logging operations were more than anticipated.

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.

On the issue of substantiation of claims, the authors argue that they have shown that the reductions of reindeer after the Ministry's decisions was a direct consequence of the impact of logging on pasture areas.

It reviews the Committee's jurisprudence on article 27 of the Covenant. and concedes that the concept of culture within the meaning of article 27 covers reindeer husbandry, as an essential component of the Sami culture.

No court action designed to prevent specific logging plans was successful, partly because any concrete logging tract is always only a seemingly modest part of the overall lands that are used by the Sami for reindeer herding .

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.

It is also undisputed that reindeer husbandry is an essential element of their culture and that economic activities may come within the ambit of article 27, if they are an essential element of the culture of an ethnic community.

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.

His Government had also established a programme to promote the sustainable economic and social development of indigenous peoples of the North, protect their environment and enhance their productivity, including the provision of housing, hospitals and schools and the promotion of reindeer farming.

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.

8.9 The authors acknowledge that over the last two years, conditions have been favourable from the point of view of securing natural food supplies, resulting in a substantial reduction in expenses for additional feeding and the survival rate of reindeer beyond expectation.