Mr. Ulrik Westman,
Chair of ACAP WG
Mr. James Gamble,
Co-Chair of IPCAP EG
Mr. Patrick Huber,
Co-Chair of IPCAP EG
Dear representatives of the ACAP Working Group of the AC,
Dear representatives of the ACAP Working Group of the AC,
As far as we know, the Russian Federation, during the ACAP WG regular meeting in Kiruna (17-19 January 2017) is going to present the project “Reconstruction of a settlement of ancient Sami and creation of a cultural-educational ecological center on its basis” which was prepared by the International environmental foundation “Clean Seas” and commercial company “Made in Arctic”. The project is supposed to create a tourist cluster on the territory of the special protected area “Lake “Seydyavvr” in Murmansk oblast.
We need to note that the companies suggested the project were not created by Sami and have no any links with indigenous peoples. The project was designed without any participation of Sami people and was not discussed with Sami community during the designing process. The project was presented by its initiators during the meeting of the Public Organization of Sami of Murmansk oblast (OOSMO) last fall. OOSMO suggests not supporting the project without broad consultations with the local Sami community and signing an agreement between OOSMO and project initiators on its realization. We supposed that this is just a general commercial project on tourism development in Murmansk region that uses Sami cultural decoration only for financial purposes, including receiving support through Arctic Council’s financial mechanisms.
As aforesaid, we asked to postpone the decision of the ACAP working group on that project until such consultation and agreement between the Sami community and project organizers are implemented.
With best regards,
Andrey Danilov
Director of the Foundation of Sami heritage and development,
Murmanskaya oblast