Veahčaknjárga Fishing Cooperative
Background and objective
Salmon fishing in Deatnu has been regulated through bilateral agreements since 1873. In November 2011, Finland and Norway started renegotiating the Deatnu (Tana/Teno) Agreement and approved a new one in early 2017, despite public protests against it from Saami and local people from both sides of the river.
There are two grave violations of Saami rights in the new agreement:
1) It reduces traditional Saami fishing, maybe as much as 80% – thus violating the cultural and property rights of the Saami people. In addition, the new agreement does not contain a single provision for Saami fishing rights.
2) The Saami have been largely excluded from effective participation in the negotiations between the two Governments, despite the fact that the representatives of fishery co-operatives – the Tana River Fish Management and Saami Parliaments of Finland and Norway – were nominated as full members of the national delegations for the negotiations of the agreement.
The aim of the project is to collect information on customary law on Saami land use and Saami governance systems concerning land use in Deatnu Water Basin in Finland through interviews of Saami traditional knowledge holders. Traditional land governance patterns will be analyzed after the interviews are transcribed and mapped to determine customary land use patterns. Material might be used as evidence for land rights cases against the State of Finland.
During the initiative we have conducted interviews which document the on-going land-use of Saami people in the area.
Mapping of land use based on interviews shows the intense use of land and waters by Saami people.
Local partner information
The Veahčaknjárga Fishing Cooperative was established in 1982 to manage local fishing in the Veahčak area. Veahčak is a small Saami village by the Deatnu River, which is a border river between Finland and Norway. All of its members are owners of the fishing rights in the Veahčaknjárga area
