Beowulf Mining, the charity started in the name of popular climate activist, Greta Thunberg has donated £158,000 to cover the legal costs of Indigenous people in Sweden’s Arctic north.
This is as they continue to battle a British mining company over plans for an iron-ore mine on reindeer-herding lands.
Headquartered in the City of London, the charity was said to have been given approval in March by the Swedish government for excavation on an area used by the Sami community.
According to reports, the government’s decision brought to an end a decade-long fight during which opposition to the open pit mine had attracted the support of Unesco and the leader of Sweden’s national church.
The chair of the Jåhkågaska Sami community, Jon-Mikko Länta, which will be most affected, was quoted as saying that a Greta Thunberg Foundation donation of 2m Swedish krona (£158,000), had provided them with the opportunity to continue to resist the mine.
“At the moment we are trying to appeal against the Swedish government’s decision to grant the concession as our legal team thinks it is not in line with international conventions on the rights of Indigenous people,” he said.
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Speaking further, he said, “It is a lot of work and expensive, which is why we are so grateful. We are hoping that if our appeal is successful that everything will go back to the Swedish government and we will at least get better terms.”
Located 28 miles (45km) outside the town of Jokkmokk in the county of Norrbotten in Swedish Sápmi, the proposed Gállok mining site is said to have become a symbol of the fight to protect Sami culture from big business and government.
Although the charity has been seeking approval for the mine since April 2013, it has consistently faced steep opposition which is only strengthened by public relations missteps.
For instance, In 2014, the former chair Clive Sinclair-Poulton was caught on camera in a boardroom with a photograph of the site, telling investors: “One of the major questions I get is, ‘What are the local people going to go ahead and say about this project?’. And I show them this picture and I say, ‘What local people?.
The representative body for people of indigenous heritage in Sweden, known as the Sami parliament was reported to have written to the Swedish government warning that the mine would destroy grazing areas and cut off the only viable migratory route for reindeer followed by the Jåhkågasska Sami community.
The parliament said that Sami communities to the west and east of the mine would also be hit by a reduction in viable grazing areas already under pressure from changes to the snow conditions attributed to the climate emergency, logging, power lines and the development of a hydroelectric dam.
The UN’s cultural protection wing, Unesco has also spoken of a potentially “large, very large” impact on the Laponian area, the mountainous world heritage site 21 miles west of the mine.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
