Abstract

The European Union is pushing for critical mineral self-sufficiency to meet its goal of transitioning to a low-carbon society, and also supporting strategic defense objectives. The raw materials needed for this transition are creating so-called 'green sacrifice zones.' The people living in resource extraction areas suffer from environmental degradation, pollution, food insecurity, and loss of livelihoods and land. They also experience some of the worst climate change impacts. The article examines the impact of mining expansion on reindeer herders in Sodankylä, Arctic Finland. The herders' territories are transformed into a sacrificial zone, legitimated by the green transition. The article links historical changes, like those brought on by hydropower and forestry, to the current rapid transformations within the green transition. The green sacrifice zone has continuities with past socio-environmental damage. The sacrifice zone is (re)enforced over time by the power asymmetries between the reindeer herders and their intergenerational territorial relations, and the authorities and corporations that promote extractivism.

Keywords: green extractivism, mining, reindeer husbandry, Arctic, sacrifice zone

How to Cite:

Lassila, M. M., (2025) “Reindeer herders in the green sacrifice zone: The cumulative impacts of past extractivist dispossessions and recent mining expansion in Sodankylä, Finland”, Journal of Political Ecology 32(1): 5696. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.5696