Small hydropower plants have the potential to serve small and remote communities with fewer negative environmental impacts than large hydropower plants. However, despite increasing recognition that local communities should have a say in their establishment, few studies have accounted for Indigenous peoples’ perspectives on small hydropower plant development. Now, Sigrid Engen and colleagues from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and the Arctic University of Norway (the Centre for Sámi Studies and the Arctic Sustainability Lab) assess Indigenous peoples’ opposition to, and acceptance of, new small hydropower projects in northern Norway.
Alongside consultations, reindeer herding and small hydropower project maps, public hearing statements were used between 2010 and 2018 as a quantitative measure of social acceptance in the county of Troms. The team note that small hydropower projects on reindeer pastures were of particular concern for Sámi leaders and reindeer owners during this period, with representatives opposing a majority of them. Reindeer herding was notably a reason for refusal of seventeen of the twenty-seven small hydropower projects dismissed. Conversely, some variability in acceptance of projects was noted between reindeer districts, raising questions regarding variables that may impact social acceptance, such as temporality. The quantitative approach taken in this paper may complement qualitative methods in future work on small hydropower opposition and acceptance.
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