Norway’s reindeer at risk

Construction projects have encroached on reindeer’s natural habitat in Norway and forced the animals into smaller areas with limited food supplies.

“Conservationists warn that human activity in wilderness areas is growing so rapidly that both wild and farmed reindeer, or caribou, may one day suffer a similar fate in their strongholds across the Arctic tundra,” New Scientist magazine reported in a recent article.

Christian Nellemann, of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in Arendal, Norway, described the situation in Norway as critical.

“They’ve lost 50 per cent of their habitat in 50 years,” Nellemann told Reuters news service.

Nellemann and his colleagues found that reindeer retreat from anywhere that lies within five kilometres of new roads, power lines, cabins or dams.

Pushed into smaller, isolated areas with less food, breeding rates drop. If the situation continues, the 30,000 remaining reindeer in Norway – whose numbers are down from 60,000 in the 1960s – will drop to 15,000 by 2020.

By 2050, the UNEP expects 70 to 80 per cent of the Arctic to be developed with infrastructure, so Greenland, Canadian, American and Russian caribou and reindeer will also be threatened.