Cumulative impact assessments and Sámi Indigenous rights

Providing meaningful participation opportunities for affected communities and individuals is central to environmental impact assessment processes. On Indigenous territory, governments and project proponents have additional duties toward Indigenous people, to treat them as rights-holders rather than stake-holders. According to international law, it is the duty of the state to secure the right of Indigenous peoples to their culture and land, and to guarantee the right for Indigenous representatives to give or withhold their Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) to land use decisions.

A robust assessment of the cumulative effects of past, present and planned land uses is a prerequisite for the protection of Indigenous rights. Informed consent is only possible if adequate information on the impacts of a project or a plan is available to the affected Indigenous actors as a part of the negotiations. Cumulative impact assessment is also necessary for determining the significance of impacts on Indigenous livelihoods, culture and rights. Without a significance determination, it is not possible for the permit authorities to judge whether a project should be granted a permission or not.

The legal status of the Sámi as Indigenous people in what today comprises Nordic countries guarantees a right to their culture, including traditional livelihoods. However, traditional Sámi land usage is affected by the cumulative effects of industrial competing land uses, such as forestry, infrastructure development, mining, wind farms and hydro power. Sweden and Finland both lack procedures for cumulative effects assessment, meaning that new project proposals are not adequately appraised in relation to existing projects. This regulatory failure has contributed to the continuous violation of Sámi rights, and stands in the way of just green transition in the Northern region.

This policy brief outlines 10 procedural principles for conducting a cumulative impact assessment to ensure the protection of Sámi rights as an Indigenous people. The list is based on established international guidelines, scientific literature and results from three research projects from 2016-2022. The focus is on Sámi reindeer herding, however the principles can be applied also to other parts of Sámi culture and livelihoods.