Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the contradictory development of ecotourism and the industrial exploitation of natural resources – mining, hydroelectricity and forestry – in Swedish Lapland. This region comprises indigenous lands of the Saami people, wholly used as reindeer herding pastures, adding another layer of complexity to the situation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the contradictory development of ecotourism and industrial exploitation of natural resources - mining, hydroelectricity and forestry - in Swedish Lapland.

The area studied covers the municipalities of Jokkmokk and Gällivare, located in the northernmost county of Sweden, above the Arctic Circle. A large proportion of this territory is protected as National Parks and Nature Reserves, which have been partly incorporated in a mixed (natural and cultural) UNESCO World Heritage site - Laponia - created in 1996. Within this area, wilderness and nature-based tourism share the same land as reindeer herding. Industrial exploitation of natural resources occurs just outside the borders of these protected areas: two mines (copper and iron ore) create huge economic income for the Gällivare municipality, and the opening of a third is currently being discussed in Jokkmokk. The river system has been used for almost a century for hydroelectricity production and the boreal forest is intensively exploited.

This communication questions the development of such contradictory activities in a relatively limited territory, where the old borders of protected areas seem to have essentially become walls separating completely antagonistic development interests. A second but significant level of contradiction will be discussed here: the entire territory is an indigenous land where Saami people have herded reindeer for over a thousand years. They still use continuously this land (from protected to non protected areas regardless borders) which offers them various kinds of pasture, from forests in the east to mountains in the west.