RENMAN- research project

RENMAN intended to study these human-environmental interactions and related problems in an interdisciplinary manner by combining and integrating the expertise of a multi-national consortium of social scientists, natural scientists and – most importantly – the herders themselves. Established methodologies deriving from the various disciplines involved here - anthropology, economics, geography, soil science and biology - were combined in order to enhance the holistic approach the research team intends to apply. The aims of RENMAN had the following general themes, focusing on the interaction between rural human populations and reindeer:

Central research questions were:

• Is "overgrazing" the only problem and reducing the number of reindeer the only solution in reindeer management?
• What are the key issues in reindeer management for the local reindeer herding communities?
• What is the future of reindeer management in northern Fenno-Scandia and adjacent northwest Russia?
• We know a lot about winter pastures, but what about the quality of summer pastures? 
• Can herders participate meaningfully in the research process?
• How best to integrate reindeer management with other uses of the northern environment, such as tourism, forestry, and hydropower?

Participant institutions

The project involved partners from nine institutes in five countries:

1. Arctic Centre, University of Lapland (coordinator);
2. Department of Geography, University of Oulu;
3. Finnish Forest Research Institute, Rovaniemi;
4. Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo;
5. Institute for Polar Ecology, Christian-Albrechts   
University, Kiel, Germany;
6. The Norwegian Crop Research Institute, Tromsø,  
Norway;
7. Department of Social Anthropology, University of   
Tromsø, Norway;
8. Institute for Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology,
Uppsala University, Sweden;
9.Institute for Anthropological Field Research, New  
Bulgarian University, Sofia,Bulgaria.