The Finnmark Act () of 2005 transferred about 96% (about 46,000 km²) of the area in the

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

county in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

to the inhabitants of Finnmark. This area is managed by the Finnmark Estate agency. The Finnmark Estate is managed by a board of directors with six members. Three of these are appointed by the

Sami Parliament of Norway Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

, and three by the ''Finnmark County Council''. The leader of the board is elected by the Sami Parliament and the County Council in alternating years.

Background

The background for the Finnmark Act is the Sámi people's fight for their rights to manage their land and culture. In 1978 the

Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate ( or NVE) is a Norwegian government agency established in 1921. It is under the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and regulates the country's water resources and energy supply. Its mandate in ...

published a plan that called for the construction of a dam and hydroelectric power plant that would create an artificial lake and inundate the

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

village of

Máze , , or is a village in Kautokeino Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The village is located along the river Kautokeinoelva, a tributary of the Alta river. about south of the town of Alta and about 60 kilometres north of the village of ...

. This plan was met by a strong opposition from the Sámi, and resulted in the

Alta controversy The Alta conflict or Alta controversy was a series of protests in Norway in the late 1970s and early 1980s against the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the Alta River in Finnmark, Northern Norway. Timeline *Inhabitants of the vil ...

. As a result of the controversy, the Norwegian government held meetings in 1980 and 1981 with a Sámi delegation appointed by the Norwegian Sámi Association, the

Sámi Reindeer Herders’ Association of Norway Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

and the Norwegian Sámi Council. The meetings resulted in the establishment of the ''Sámi Rights Committee'' addressing Sámi legal relations, that proposed among other things the establishing the Sami Parliament, and finally the adoption of the Finnmark Act in 2005. The Sámi rights to lands, waters and resources were strengthened after 1990, when Norway recognized the Sámi as an

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

by adapting the

ILO convention 169 The Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 is an International Labour Organization List of International Labour Organization Conventions, Convention, also known as ILO Convention 169, or C169. It is the major Contract, binding Internation ...

concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries. The convention states that rights for the indigenous peoples to land and natural resources are recognized as central for their material and cultural survival. In addition, indigenous peoples should be entitled to exercise control over, and manage, their own institutions, ways of life and economic development in order to maintain and develop their identities, languages and religions, within the framework of the States in which they live.

Purpose

Traditionally the Norwegian authorities had a view that the nomadic Sámi use of land, water and natural resources did not establish any formal legal rights. The basis for the Finnmark act is that "the Sámis, through protracted traditional use of the land and water areas, have acquired individual and/or collective ownership and right to use lands and waters in Finnmark County." The Finnmark act attempts to strengthen the Sámi rights, by giving the ''entire'' population of Finnmark greater influence of the property in the county. However, the act does not cover fishing rights in saltwater,

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

, or oil rights. An important element of the act is discussion and recognition of existing rights of use and ownership of land. For this purpose a commission and tribunal have been set up. The foundation of this work is the principles of established custom and immemorial usage. (ibid.)

References

{{Reflist

External links

FinnmarkseiendommenFinnmarksloven
Sámi politics Finnmark Law of Norway Forestry in Norway Environmental law

Background

Purpose

See also

References

External links