Sami say they pay the price for a greener economy

It’s just after sunrise near Jokk mokk, a small town north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden, and Gun Aira, a reindeer herder, and her family are gathering the animals for the long trip to the mountains. Following the reindeer’s spring migration through hundreds of kilometres of snow-covered forests, to their calving area close to the Norwegian border, is a centuries-old tradition.

But today, the reindeer, capable of one of the longest land migrations on Earth, will travel the 250 km to their calving grounds by road, in the back of a big lorry.

Aira, who recalls skiing alongside the reindeer in her youth, says moving them by foot is now impossible, due to a habitat diminished by development.

“A lot has changed,”