TARGET at the side of the Saami

This news does not come from the distant Amazon rainforest of Brazil, it reaches us from northern Europe, from Sweden. Reindeer roaming the snow-covered expanses of Lapland is the image that comes to mind when you think of the untouched, barren and yet rich nature of northern Europe. This untouched nature is now in danger. Because a large part of the traditionally used habitat of Europe's last indigenous people, the Saami, is under threat. Iron ore is in the soil of their ancestral land. It is now to be mined on a grand scale. The Swedish government has already granted a mining concession to an English mining company.

"At the end of 2022, the Saami approached us and asked us to support them in their resistance to the planned mine in the Gállok (Kallak) region",

said TARGET board member Roman Weber. A mine not only threatens the original way of life of the indigenous people in Swedish Lapland, but also destroys a large part of the "boreal forest" ecosystem, the last of its kind in Europe. This absorbs around a third of the carbon dioxide emitted!

TARGET board member Roman Weber with board members Matthias Pirak (l.) and Jon-Mikko Länta (r.) of the Saami community Jåhkågaska Tjiellde.

From page 3 onwards, you can read exactly how TARGET supports the Saami and more about the Saami in general in the new Annual Letter 2023.

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