Canal-U

« Working with Nature » – Sami reindeer herders and biodiversity in the boreal forest (2016)

Produced for the ILK dialogue workshop (11-13 January 2016, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris) organized within the framework of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), this film presents extracts from interviews with three reindeer herders from the Sami community of Sirges in Jokkmokk, Sweden. The herders attest to the importance of biological diversity for their herding livelihood and their dependence on the health of the boreal forest ecosystem. They describe the practices that threaten herding along with the remaining stands of old forest, and their conflicts notably with industrial forestry. Expressed in other terms, they analyze the ecosystem services provided by the biodiversity of their subarctic forest milieu, and confirm that any threat to the biodiversity upon which they and their herds depend, is a threat to their way of life.