– Take the reindeer and disappear! That’s how it has been and that’s how it will continue. This is how Per Lars Kitti (75) believes he has been and continues to be treated by Tromsø municipality and other public authorities. – I am old now, but even as a young man I had to fight against the municipality, he says. For generations, the Kitti family has had reindeer herding on Kvaløya. Has received complaints from neighbors The family’s house was the first and for a long time the only house in the area. It has always been used for reindeer herding purposes – a place where they can take care of weak and injured animals. The reindeer owner himself believes that he was not informed when the municipality decided to build housing estates around his house in 1981, which has led to large population growth, increased traffic and traffic. Kitti has been ordered to implement measures to prevent the reindeer from congregating in the area around the home in Soppsvingen. Photo: Dan Robert Larsen / news Kitti believes that the development has made it challenging to run reindeer herding. The municipality has received complaints from Kitti’s neighbours, who believe that faeces from the reindeer present health challenges. Tromsø municipality has decided that Kitti must get the reindeer out of the residential area and ordered him to implement measures to prevent the reindeer from congregating in the area around the home on Slettaelva. Believes Kitti cannot be imposed The reindeer owner’s lawyer, Anett Beatrix Osnes Fause at the law firm Elden, believes that the decision is invalid because it is unclear which duties are imposed on Kitti in the decision and how compliance or lack of compliance is to be measured. The municipality does not want the reindeer to stay in the residential area, but at the same time they believe that it is okay for reindeer to roam by. Anett Beatrix Osnes Fause believes that the decision cannot be implemented with the intention that the municipality requests and that no coercion can be put behind such a decision. Photo: Dan Robert Larsen / news – When the problem is faeces in the residential area, it becomes difficult to distinguish roaming from illegal conditions, where reindeer stay in the residential area. The regulation plan for Slettaelva states that the area must be fenced off to prevent grazing animals from entering. Fause believes that the zoning plan’s solution should be realized before Kitti can get an order. Developments create conflicts Kitti feels that the orders and guidelines mean that his areas are restricted and that he has to change his operations. – Even if he is not directly required to do so, it will be the consequence of the handling and pressure that has been there, says Fause. It is not just housing estates that have created challenges for Kitti. For 40 years, Kitti has fought against a new ski resort in its area, and in 2014 a new operating unit was established on Sør-Kvaløya, which Kitti was also very much against. The reindeer owner believes that the restrictions on the areas mean that he is forced back to the most developed and trafficked part of Kvaløya. Anett Beatrix Osnes Fause believes that the total development in the area on Kvaløya has created the conflict. Photo: Dan Robert Larsen / news Fause believes Kitti has not been involved in the case preparations, and that there have been limited opportunities for him to participate in previous processes. In addition, the lawyer believes that certain assessments have been made when the interest in reindeer herding has been assessed in the cases. – They have looked at the individual measures and said that this is so small that you have to deal with it. She believes that they have not considered the big picture and what negative consequences this has had overall for Kitti. Large parts of Kvaløya are defined as reindeer grazing areas. This means that there can be reindeer herding there, and that reindeer herders must have premises to operate in the traditional way. Kvaløya is Norway’s fifth largest island by area. After the bridge to Kvaløya was completed in 1973, the population has increased sharply. Photo: Laila Lanes / news Will facilitate the reindeer herding – We hope that the matter will soon be resolved. Either with measures in the neighborhood, or that Kitti gets another property on Kvaløya. That’s according to the deputy mayor of Tromsø, Sigrid Bjørnhaug Hammer (SV), who thinks it’s a shame that Kitti feels badly treated by the municipality. Sigrid Bjørnhaug Hammer believes that it is important to facilitate reindeer husbandry in the future. Photo: Simen Wingstad / news – Did the municipality foresee that this would be fraught with conflict, when they gave permission to set up homes in the area? – This is becoming an old zoning plan, so I am not familiar with what kind of assessments were made at the time. What we do is that we relate to the situation as it is today, and try to do our part to find a solution. Kitti believes that the residential area at Slettaelva is in the middle of a central moving and moving area. – I am not familiar with that, says Hammer. According to the Reindeer Herding Act, moving leases must not be closed and the reindeer herding has the right to freely and unhindered move the reindeer along the reindeer herding’s moving lease. Believes that the decision is valid. The Planning and Building Act is not the assessment basis for Tromsø municipality. They have taken a decision based on the Public Health Act, where they order Kitti to implement measures to prevent the reindeer gathering and exposing the neighbors to health inconvenience in the form of faeces. The municipality’s head of infection control, Trond Brattland, does not agree that the decision is invalid. Trond Brattland writes that they assessed that the gathering of reindeer and the accumulation of faeces could pose a health disadvantage for the neighbours. Photo: Annabelle Kårvåg Sørensen / news In a letter to Kitti, he replies that there are many reindeer in Kvaløysletta, but that they do not congregate anywhere other than outside Kitti’s home. – It is therefore most likely to assume that it is the feeding that takes place in the residential area that constitutes the problem, writes Brattland. The superintendent believes that the feeding place must be moved to open fields, and during the period when the reindeer learn that they will no longer be fed at the home, Kitti must transport away the reindeer that gather at the home. He points out that the decision is not aimed at measures to change reindeer husbandry as a whole. Fought for his rights for close to 80 years – All my life I have been in conflict with the authorities, says Kitti. Kitti believes he still runs reindeer herding in the same way as his grandmother did. Photo: Dan Robert Larsen / news He took over the operation from his grandmother Margrethe Lango Kitti, who began year-round operations on Kvaløya and the neighboring islands in 1923. Previously, the family had summer siida on Kvaløya. The family’s fight for reindeer herding rights is about as relevant now as it was 78 years ago. In 1952, Margrethe got to greet King Haakon during the royal house’s trip to northern Norway. Margrethe Lango Kitti began year-round operations on Kvaløya and neighboring islands in 1923. Per Kitti took over operations from his grandmother. Photo: Kjell Fjörtoft / Tromsø Museum According to the Norwegian Polar Institute (external link), the meeting was not accidental; Margrethe had sent several letters to the King about the reindeer husbandry’s difficult conditions on Kvaløya. The Polar Institute writes that the king is said to have replied to her: “Mrs. Kitti, never fear the reindeer on Kvaløya. It must be there as long as Norway exists”. The Kitti family’s history on Kvaløya and Ringvassøya Per Lars Kitti (b. 1948) has run a year-round farm on Kvaløya throughout his life. He took over the business from his grandmother Margrethe Lango Kitti (1884-1974). Margrethe Lango Kitti began year-round operations on Kvaløya and the neighboring islands in 1923. Before that time, Kitti’s family belonged to a migratory herd of summer siida on Kvaløya. Margrethe Lango Kitti had siida affiliation with the summer siida on South Kvaløya and her husband Per Kitti had siida affiliation with Nord-Kvaløya and Ringvassøya. Source: Norsk Polarhistorie Believes that the need for additional feeding has increased The State Administrator in Troms and Finnmark has given notice that Kitti is not allowed to feed the reindeer on her own property. Kitti believes that he still operates in the same way as his grandmother, and that the home functions as a base for additional feeding and care for weak and injured reindeer, as many other reindeer herders also practice. The house that Per Kitti lives in was built by Kitti’s grandmother. He has lived alone in Nedre Soppsvingen on Kvaløya in Tromsø since the house was built in 1959. Photo: Dan Robert Larsen / news He believes that the need for supplementary feeding has increased in recent years, as a result of climate change and the loss of grazing areas. The reindeer owner states that he has established permanent feeding places throughout the island, but when the reindeer is weak, injured or hungry, it seeks out its home in Soppsvingen. Kitti believes that he is constantly doing his best to reduce the amount of reindeer in the residential area. Reindeer in the housing estate on Kvaløya in Tromsø is causing headaches for some residents. Photo: Petter Strøm / news Fause still believes that the decision is invalid and refers to the zoning plan. – This conflict between housing estates and grazing animals was in due course resolved with a provision in the zoning plan. There is already a solution to this matter. It is disproportionate to place the responsibility on Per Kitti. Read more about reindeer herders being afraid that increased urbanization will eventually mean that it is no longer possible to make a living from reindeer herding: Published 18.07.2024, at 05.21
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Per Kitti is still fighting for her rights – 78 years after her grandmother asked the king for help – news Sápmi
