After three weeks of negotiations in the Helgeland District Court in Mosjøen, the parties concluded their final proceedings on Thursday. The matter of judgment is between Norway’s largest wind power plant, Øyfjellet Wind, and the Jillen-Njaarke reindeer herding district. Because when the wind power plant received a license from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (now only the Ministry of Energy) in 2016, the area was within the aforementioned reindeer grazing district. This means that Øyfjellet Wind is obliged to reach an agreement on financial compensation with all affected parties. This has not been resolved, and therefore Øyfjellet Wind has taken the case to the discretionary court to determine the compensation for the reindeer herding. – It is important that the reindeer herding district is compensated for extra work and extra costs in the years it is relevant to use the moving lease through the wind farm up to the grazing area northwest of it, says Øyfjellet Wind’s lawyer Pål Martin Abell. More about the aforementioned moving rent and grazing area later in the case. Lawyer Pål Martin Abell holds up a large cardboard plate with a map of the reindeer grazing district for the judge and the discretionary members. Photo: Marius Guttormsen / news On the opposite side, the lawyer for the Jillen-Njaarke reindeer herding district has stated that the wind power plant causes such great disadvantages for reindeer husbandry that it threatens its entire existence. Specifically, the lawyers have stated that SP Article 27 has been breached. It was the same article that the Supreme Court believed had been violated in the Fosen case. They demand that all 72 turbines be demolished and the area returned to nature. – The district wants the turbines to be demolished and the land to be returned to the grazing area as far as possible, says Jillen-Njaarke’s lawyer Pål Gude Gudesen to news. Lawyer Pål Gude Gudesen has represented the Jillen-Njaarke reindeer herding district in court. On the right sits the leader of the district, Torstein Appfjell. Photo: Håkon Mudenia / news Will be in over 200 million. In this connection, reindeer herding has caused the Protect Sapmi foundation to calculate a financial requirement. The requirement contains a number of mitigating measures, including fences for feeding, new roads, trailer transport and compensation for lost calving and grazing areas. The Jillen-Njaarke reindeer herding district will ask for a total of more than NOK 200 million in compensation – if the demand for demolition does not reach the court. – You are forced to accept a claim for compensation. And then in this case a compensation claim has been calculated based on an operational adjustment with so-called mitigating measures, says Gudesen. The claim is two-part, and consists of a one-off sum of approximately NOK 28 million. In addition, a demand has been put forward for an annual payment of around NOK 5.8 million – as long as the wind power plant, which has a license for 30 years, is on Øyfjellet. This report for the Jillen-Njaarke reindeer herding district was presented to the court. This involves a one-off payment of around NOK 27 million, and an annual payment of NOK 5.9 million as long as the wind power plant is on Øyfjellet. – The requirement is based on investment costs for these fence systems. In addition, there are running costs for feeding, operating the facilities, extra work and so on, says Gudesen and adds: – The other party is asking the court instead to pay out a lump sum, which will then be very high, around NOK 200 million. He emphasizes that the district does not want compensation, but wants “the measures to be realised” – But neither the State nor the plaintiff wanted to contribute to this, says Gudesen. When reindeer husbandry and wind power finally reached an agreement at Nord-Fosen, it meant an annual payment of NOK 7 million. Over the concession period of 25 years, this amounted to NOK 175 million at today’s krone exchange rate. It is not known how large the financial compensation for the reindeer herding on Sør-Fosen was. Two parties demand compensation Jillen-Njaarke is not the only party from reindeer husbandry to demand compensation. Because alongside Jillen-Njaarke, Berit Kristine Hætta (Svennan sijte) has followed the case from the court. She will ask for around NOK 137 million. This also requires a one-off payment (10.9 million), as well as an annual compensation of around NOK 3 million for 42 years, according to court documents. Lawyer Pål Gude Gudesen greets Betty Kappfjell, retired reindeer herder and family member of the defendants at Øyfjellet during the first day of the trial. Photo: Marius Guttormsen / news Hætta’s lawyer Knut Helge Hurum has not answered news’s inquiries on Thursday. For its part, Øyfjellet Wind believes that the demand is far too high. – We are clear that the district will have some additional work and additional costs, but all the documentation shows that the compensation to the district must be at a completely different level than the requirements that have been put forward, says lawyer Abell. He also disagrees that the license that was given back in 2016 was given on an incorrect basis. – We believe that the wind power plant is not close to having such major consequences for reindeer husbandry that it should be appropriate to conclude that the concession is invalid, says Abell. The Jillen-Njaarke reindeer grazing district covers large parts of southern Helgeland. The gray fields are winter pastures, and the contested grazing area is in the far north-west of the area. Disputes over winter grazing The Øyfjellet and Fosen cases have many similarities, but also some significant differences. In both cases, access to areas where reindeer graze in the winter is central. At Fosen, the wind turbines were placed on the grazing area itself. On Øyfjellet, the wind power plant stands next to a grazing area. Therefore, a central question in the case has been how important this winter pasture is for the reindeer herding industry, and to what extent the wind power plant prevents reindeer herding from being able to use this area. Here, the parties have widely differing perceptions of what is fact. The gray area marks winter grazing for Jillen-Njaarke, while the purple lines mark where the wind power plant is located. The yellow lines are moving leases that the reindeer herding uses when the animals are to be moved to winter pasture. One of the moving leases runs right through the wind farm. – Can become critical over time Reindriften believes the district has had to endure a number of interventions over time, but that the wind power plant has caused the cup to overflow. – The total load is absolutely decisive, says Gudesen. – But one must not forget that this is a huge intervention, the wind power plant is isolated. After all, it is Norway’s largest and it stretches over a substantial mountain area, he says. The Øvfjell trial. Former Nils Anders Appfjell, Per Anders Kappfjell, Ole Henrik Kappfjell with boy Åsmund Lian and district manager Torstein Appfjell Photo: Tor Evensen / Motvind Bevar Øyfjell Gudesen mentions that, among other things, the railway, E6 and the company Brønnøy Kalk have already made inroads in the reindeer grazing district. The wind power plant adds another stone to the burden, the lawyer believes. – This intervention alone is dramatic. When the situation is already very bad, the situation can become critical over time. – The approach is the same as before Øyfjellet Wind’s lawyer Abell, on the other hand, believes that the reindeer herding can continue as before, even if the wind power plant has been set up. – Our most important evidence and arguments show that access to this winter grazing area is in practice the same as before the wind farm was built. This video from spring 2024 shows how the reindeer were moved through the wind farm. Ahead of this year’s move, the reindeer herding district and the wind power had held a dialogue about mitigating measures to help the move. Video: Photo: Øyfjellet Wind Abell believes this was particularly clear this spring, when the district and Øyfjellet Wind had a dialogue about remedial measures ahead of and during the move. – The videos and other evidence show the movement of large herds, with the same aids that are used otherwise. At the same time, the district has received some extra work and extra costs as a result of the wind farm, which must be compensated in the assessment case. The government attorney: – Can continue as before. As a result of the fact that it was the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in 2016 that gave Øyfjellet Wind a licence, the state is also represented as party aid for the wind power industry. Not unexpectedly, government lawyer Anders Blakstad disagreed with the claims that human rights have been violated. – The state is of course keen to show that the expropriation intervention does not develop a threat to the existence of reindeer husbandry either. And will not in the long term have negative consequences that exceed the intervention threshold in SP article 27 in another way, Blakstad said in court. Government lawyer Anders Blakstvedt during the negotiations in Helgeland district court in Mosjøen. Photo: Marius Guttormsen / news Even if the court were to conclude that the winter pasture in question has actually been lost to reindeer husbandry, the state still believes that human rights have not been violated. – The intervention threshold has not been exceeded. And the main points in that will be that grazing resources are available in abundance, and that the operating pattern we have seen from before indicates that here there will be no few consequences for the defendants’ ability to practice culture. In short – you can continue as before. After the court was adjourned on Thursday, the judge and members of the judiciary go to their respective places to write the verdict. It is expected to arrive at the end of August, stated judge Jørgen Sætrum on the last day of court. A number of listeners have followed the trial in Mosjøen in recent weeks. Photo: Marius Guttormsen / news Published 13.06.2024, at 21.48 Updated 14.06.2024, at 07.51
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The reindeer herding requires over 300 million from Norway’s largest wind power plant – news Nordland
