Antti Aikio and Åsa Larsson Blind have been chosen as PhD students in a subproject “Ecology and socio-economy of reindeer herding systems”, which is a part of new Nordic Centre of Excellence, and guided by Professor Bruce Forbes from the Arctic Centre.
NCoE Tundra (2011–2015) is a new Nordic Centre of Excellence, funded by
NordForsk and under the scheme Top-level Research Initiative (TRI). The
scope is to study the interaction between the ecological phenomenon of
top down impacts in food webs and climate-vegetation interactions, and
to integrate this perspective with the human-managed reindeer husbandry
and the Sámi culture dependent on it.
“Ultimately, NCoE Tundra wishes to learn how the top-down impact of
reindeer can be optimally applied to the prevention of shrub
encroachment and woodland expansion, and the resulting negative impacts
of these processes on global climate and biodiversity”, it is said in
the description of the project.
The Centre is a joint co-operation between eight research partner
institutions in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The project consists of
eight Work Packages, each of them dealing with their own specific
issues.
Antti Aikio and Åsa Larsson Blind are Sámi researchers with strong
interests to study reindeer herding systems. They both come from
reindeer herding families. Antti Aikio is a student in the Faculty of
Law in the University of Lapland. Åsa Larsson Blind has a master in
Human Resources Management and Development. She is currently a project
coordinator of Dievát, which is initiated by Saarivuoma and aims to
formulate a land management plan based on Sámi view on nature and land
use.
For more information:
Professor Bruce Forbes, Arctic Centre, bruce.forbes (at) ulapland.fi, tel. +358 (0)40 847 9202
Nordic Centre of Excellence (Tundra)
Text: ULapland / Arctic Centre / Marjo Laukkanen