Communicating challenges in reindeer husbandry in NOrway

Step 1: Identify project.

There is already an inflamed debate around semi-domestic reindeer and the management regime with
stakeholders and non-stakeholders involved. The debate is in media, social media and in the scientific
community. There is also already an online presence of our research thanks to reinbase.no, and we do
experience varying degree of trust from the herders we work alongside. Reinbase.no is used by herders and
they do look at the information we from the research that we publish there.
The goal is to communicate knowledge about the conditions that affect production and losses in reindeer
husbandry, and with emphasis on how these conditions are affected by snow conditions, phenology, and plant
production. In addition, we want to communicate how reindeer numbers affect production and losses, and
how the effects of climatic conditions are strengthened (or weakened) by reindeer numbers.
We want to communicate the outcome of our research in a more regular and systematic manner than what
we do today. The plan we have for this is to launch a blog on reinbase.no, where we regularly (monthly) post
about and explain the outcome of the research in such a way that herders and management authorities can
utilise it

Step 2: Timing
As a basis, the blog will follow the annual cycle of reindeer husbandry:

Spring: This is the time for birth of new calves, and this is also the time if the year when the reindeer are
the most vulnerable to predators and other disturbances. It also the time of the year when the
animals are the lightest after winter and you clearly can see how the conditions have been the past
winter on the animals.

May: we can summarize the past winter conditions, other than only snow depth, and discuss
the condition of the animals in the light of the past winter conditions.
June: we can shed light on how the past winter conditions may affect calf production this year

Summer:
July: We use satellite data to asses both snow conditions and plant productions and the state
of the pastures. In July we could present the satellite data and discuss them.
August: Summer is the season of plenty, and the season where the animals make up for the loss of
resources they have had during winter, and they do this on cost of their calf. August could
therefore be a great time to discuss calf production and size of females in the light of the past
winter conditions and population density

Autumn: This is the time for harvest, and the time of the year where we see the result of the past winter and
summer. In early September, we can estimate whether there will be large or small calves based on
temporary phenology and plant production data. Here we can also discuss what in the most
productive age-structure in the herd and which animals it is beneficial to slaughter

September: Slaughter is how you regulate population density, and with the upcoming winter being
the bottleneck for survival and calf production the herd we could discuss hos to asses
what is good population densities the benefits of a lower population density on
production.
 October: Here can keep to slaughter and productivity, but discuss what is a productive age-
structure in the herd and which animals it is beneficial to slaughter

Winter: Winter is the bottleneck for survival and the time of the year where we see the clearest negative
effect of high population densities. Snow conditions vary a lot from year to year, both thinking if
time for first snow fall and snow conditions. This is also a season that has changed a lot with
climate change, and the challenges for reindeer husbandry are changing with global warming.
Therefore, the blog could discuss the effects of global warming on and population density.

November: with climate change the arrival of first snow may get later, which is beneficial for
reindeer, this could be further developed in a blog post in November
December: with climate change the are more events of icing with more rain in the winter months
and freezing and thawing of the snow pack. This creates hard grazing conditions for
reindeer the icing is a stressful concept keeping herders awake at night
January: some herds have good winter pastures in the interior plains, where there is lees freezing
and thawing, whereas other herds utilise the coastal mountainous areas also in winter.
The coastal areas used to be used only during summer grazing, and we do see how
herds kept at the coast also during winter struggle in the winter.
February: in February, we can summarize previous years and make predictions for how many
calves we expect to be born, and how many we assume are viable. This will form the
basis for the State Administrator's assessments of production and losses to be
processed in the autumn.

March: In March we start seeing clear effect of the winter has been on the body condition of the
animals. We also see how herds with denser population may cope worse with the
winter, so this could be a good time to discuss population densities
April: this is the month with the greatest cumulated snow-depth, so here we can discuss the
present snow conditions, and especially how the depth of the snowpack affect reindeer

We also wish to present shorter snapshots of the research in social media. This could material from fieldwork,
some interesting results, the present weather, and snow conditions and so on and will also follow the annual
cycle of reindeer husbandry.

Step: 3 Who are the players?

We will do this in collaboration with the Directorate for Agriculture, and we do also have good support from
our communication department. There is already strong presence in media and social media from
management authorities, but since there is a conflict between reindeer herders and decision makers, we do
not want to promote our research too tightly linked to management authorities, and is important that is easily
understood that research is not biased by management authorities.

Step 5: Prep for pushback

Any time anything regarding reindeer husbandry is posted or published there is a debate and most likely a
conflict. The debate is in the scientific community, between reindeer herders and management authorities,
between reindeer herders and research and between reindeer herders themselves.
So, we will definitely need a plan for how to handle criticism on several platforms. We are discussing whether
we should a platform for comments or not in the blog. The benefit would we that we would retain some kind
of control and overview of the ongoing debate, but a debate in comments is rarely unbiased or sticking to the
facts so it might also undermine the information in the blog.
We have communication departments to get help from, both in our institution and in the Directorate for
Agriculture, and there are researchers in the project with long experience of the debate and also several court
cases where they have been expert witnesses