Davvi Wind Farm Rejected in Northern Sápmi

 

Raggovidda Wind Farm, Berlevåg, Norway

Reuters reported on November 4, 2025 that Norway's energy regulator had rejected an application to build a wind farm in its northernmost county of Finnmark, citing impacts to a wilderness area as well as Indigenous Sámi culture.

The projected Davvi wind farm would have joined other wind farms in the northernmost region of Norway, such as Raggovidda, which has been operating since 2014 just south of the fishing port of  Berlevåg. The landscapes of the plateaus in the north offer little resistance and the winds blow all year round with astonishing force, making the wind farm of Raggovidda one of the most efficient in the world, producing almost twice as much energy as an average farm.

However, the large farms come with a cost for the fragile biodiversity of the high north. Along with the turbines themselves come an entire infrastructure of roads, power lines, and buildings in areas once used only for reindeer herding.

The projected Davvi wind farm had been contested ever since its proposal some five years ago by a coalition that has included reindeer herders, political activists, and environmentalists. The Saami Council has strongly protested the giant industrial windpower development project, noting that it "would require an area equal to 8 000 football fields or 63 square kilometres and over 100 kilometres or service road networks." This would have been in a area of great natural beauty near Laksefjordvidda, near the sacred Sámi mountain of Rásttigáisá in the Tana and Lebesby municipalities, south of the Barents Sea and not far from the Finnish border.

Rásttigáisá Mountain 

In their initial 2020 public response, the Saami Council also pointed out that:

"Little attention has been paid to the fact that the Davvi wind power plant is part of St1’s Power-to-X or hydrogen industrial plans in Kemi, Finland. St1 is planning to build a refinery which produces synthetic fuels from CO2 emissions of a pulp mill and windpower from the Davvi wind power plant. The project requires the building of new infrastructure, ie. a new powerline from Norway to Finland via the Sámi reindeer-herding cooperatives Galdoaivi ja Báišduottar. The powerline is included in the Lapland regional land use plan 2040."

I can't do better than quote at length from a statement produced in 2020 by the Friends of the Earth Norway, criticizing the application by the corporation Grenselandet AS:

"The planning area for Davvi wind power farm is in Laksefjordvidda, one of the largest areas without major interventions in Norway. This arctic nature is undisturbed by industry and buildings, and one can walk for days surrounded only by nature, a totally unique experience. There are very few such areas left in Norway. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in August that almost three-quarters of the world's ice-free land is affected by human activities, and the remaining proportion is shrinking rapidly. Such large intact nature areas are thus very valuable and important to preserve - both for the outdoor experience and for nature's intrinsic value. Building hundreds of wind turbines with associated roads and construction sites in an area the size of Stavanger will for the foreseeable future destroy the priceless nature of Laksefjordvidda.

"The area is very poorly mapped for biodiversity. However, we know that the Arctic is an important ecosystem. At first glance the area may seem like deserted stone rubble, but it is in fact the habitat for a number of species, several of them on the red list for threatened species. Here lives the rock ptarmigan, which is a bird species that Norway has an international responsibility to protect, and tiny beautiful flowers grow close to the ground. In the summer of 2016, a nesting of the critically endangered lesser white-fronted goose was discovered just over three miles from the plan area. Birds of prey such as ravens and snowy owls hunt for the lemmings and other small rodents. This area is an important route for Arctic foxes wandering between Varanger and Nord-Troms. To get a good overview of the diversity of species there is a need for thorough survey and field work, but we already know that the Arctic landscape is richer and more impressive than one might at first assume.

"In addition to the great natural and landscape values, the area is very important for the Sami indigenous people. The sacred mountain Rásttigáisá is located in the immediate vicinity of the planning area for the wind farm, and construction will be very negative for the reindeer resources. The rocky mountain peaks are also important for the reindeer, as a refuge from troublesome insects. Reindeer herding is already under severe pressure from a number of developments, and this burden will soon make it impossible for the next generation to continue the traditional way of life."

 

Reindeer herders fear Arctic industry boom

 

A well-researched article on the BBC website about challenges facing the Sami as the so-called Green Revolution pushes forward with more mining and wind farming in Northern Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Depressing but crucial reading.

 

Climate Justice Panel at the EU-SAMI WEEK

The Markbygden wind farm in Pitea, Sweden/Washington Post

In my previous blog I offered a few impressions from the streamed panels I listened to as part of EU-Sámi Week (June 20-22, 2022) at the European Parliament in Brussels. On Tuesday afternoon, June 21, there was a two-part program on Climate Justice that I highly recommend watching  for better insight into how an Indigenous people are dealing with increasing demands on their traditional lands in the name of green energy and sustainability.

 

A few days ago (June 29, 2022) the Washington Post published an article on “the Green Revolution Sweeping Sweden,” detailing the excitement in certain industrial and government sectors about various plans for steel plants and other factories to be sited up in the north of the country, factories that would offer plenty of jobs and also be built and operated using green technology. Often called the “green transition” in the press, these initiatives and others align with Sweden’s admirable goal to be fossil-free by 2045, and to ensure that 100% of the energy used will be renewable. At the same time, the “green transition” tries to reassure us that businesses and individuals will not suffer: Increased growth, often involving global partners, will be fully sustainable and even highly profitable.

On the Climate Justice panel, Mikael Kuhmunen, a reindeer herder and the leader of the Sirges sameby near Jokkmokk, said the “green transition” should instead be called the “black transition.” The recent decision in March, 2022, by the Swedish government to go ahead with granting a mining lease to Jokkmokk Iron Mines AB for the Gallók open pit mine is a bitter blow to reindeer herders and to environmentalists who had hoped that the mining concession would be cancelled. Iron Mines AB is a subsidiary of Beowulf Mining, a UK-based company that has had its eye on Gallók for many years. Many thought that the mine would never be approved because of the steady and increasing opposition.

There is nothing green about this proposed iron ore mine so close to the Lule River, or the many other iron ore, copper and other mines planned for Northern Sweden. Nor is there much that'svery  green about the proposed steel mills near Luleå, which will rely for energy on hydropower and a proposed huge wind farm.

Mikael Kuhmunen participated in one of the two panels on Climate Justice held at the EU-Sámi Week. These two panels involved Sámi politicians, activists, and youth organizers, as well as a few non-Sámi politicians from Sweden and Finland and EU bureaucrats, one of whom was Jesús Alquézar Sabadie, a socio-economic analyst, who projected sympathy and understanding for the issues facing the Sámi in the Arctic, and said that most climate policies are based on macro-modeling, and don't take into account human rights and the rights of Indigenous people.

Michael Mann, the EU Special Envoy for Arctic Matters, participated in both panels. He is British and has held various portfolios; his air was polite and politic. He wanted to listen, he often said, while often reminding the Sámi that they shared the same goal (fewer hydrocarbons) and that the Sámi would not get everything they wanted from the EU.

As the panels went on, I often had the feeling that in spite of the expressed desire to work together, the Sámi panelists and the EU representatives were often speaking to different worldviews and in parallel languages. The tone was even and courteous, but the Sámi took issue at times with EU-speak about sustainable growth. In the second panel, Åsa Larsson Blind, currently vice-president of the Saami Council, asked some searching questions about growth and what was meant by the word sustainable. “What are we sustaining?” she asked. “Should we be using this many resources or should we become more efficient with the resources we have?” She side-stepped a suggestion from the EU parliament member from northern Sweden that the Sámi might consider becoming part owners of some of these energy companies, such as LKAB, the giant Swedish state-owned mining company that operates the lucrative mine in Kiruna and has development interests elsewhere in northern Sweden/Sápmi. Such ownership would result in benefit-sharing of profits. Behind such talk was the assumption that northern Sweden is both empty and poor, and that everyone would benefit from the income generated by “green” projects.

Åsa Larsson Blind quietly countered that the Sámi people considered themselves “caretakers” of the land, and their primary responsibility was to protect the land, as they had always done. She spoke of Indigenous knowledge as a benefit to others, that Sámi use of the land had something to teach outsiders. For instance, biodiversity loss tends to be far less in Indigenous lands than in more developed areas.

Just as pointed were the thoughtful words of Eirik Larsen, an Indigenous lawyer and a political advisor to the Norwegian Sámi Parliament. He spoke of the richness of Sámi life and reminded the EU speakers that not everything in life was based on money. Just as importantly he spoke to the issue of consent.

Throughout the text of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), adopted in 2007 by the General Assembly (including all the countries in the EU), the words “free, prior, and informed consent” consistently appear. Of note in the case of land use is Article 32, which states that:

 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources.

2. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the develop­ment, utilization or exploitation of mineral, wa­ter or other resources.

Eirik Larsen reminded the EU representatives that “first we talk about consent. And then we talk about sharing benefits.” He also reminded those on the panel that sometimes when the state and Sápmi consulted together, “the answer is no.”

This discussion is taking place at a time when member states of the EU are highly concerned about energy security because of the war of aggression against Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia. Part of the desire for security is not having to depend on unstable states outside the EU for energy supplies but to develop the EU's own resources and to focus on renewable energy. In this calculation, member states like Sweden and Finland are thought to play a significant role. The Arctic is under extreme stress from climate change, including the warming of the polar areas and the destruction of boreal forests to logging and disease. But the lands above the Arctic circle also are rich in minerals, rivers, and less populated areas for wind farms.

If Sápmi didn’t have many things that Europe now wants and needs, there might not have been the impetuous for an EU-Sámi week of discussions open to public viewing. The Sámi, a minority in the Nordic countries and even more a minority in Europe, are important players in Arctic and energy discussions and will become more so in future. The question is whether Indigenous rights and a parallel view of what makes life rich and sustainable will also get a hearing. 

And whether the Sámi will find enough support to demanding the right to say “No.”