Umeå universitets logga

An Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an important part of understanding how an activity may affect its surroundings and its purpose should form a basis for decision-making. One such activity is wind power which, due to Swedish laws are subject to a permit, which means that they are assumed to cause significant environmental impact and an EIA must therefore be carried out. When wind farms are established, they often compete with the lands of Sámi reindeer herding communities and can have a negative impact on reindeer husbandry. The study investigates how the impact on reindeer husbandry of wind power is described in EIAs with a focus on the cumulative effects and how they are evaluated. The study is carried out in two stages, first a literature study to collect scientific data, then a thematic analysis of ten EIAs. This analysis indicates that, although cumulative effects are included, they are not very elaborate and the description and evaluation of them is very summary and forgiving about possible negative impact. Other factors of impact, such as social impact, power lines, temporal aspect, roads, spatial aspect, noise and visual impact are also described on a general level and some of them, like visual impact, should have been described in more EIAs. Thus the conclusion being that, since it is regulated by Swedish law, that cumulative effects must be included in EIA;s, they are not fully evaluated and functioning regulation through authorities is needed.