plantyhamchuk:

The charity founded in Greta Thunberg’s name has donated £158,000 to cover the legal costs of Indigenous people in Sweden’s Arctic north as they battle a British mining company over plans for an iron-ore mine on reindeer-herding lands.

Beowulf Mining, which has its headquarters in the City of London, was given approval in March by the Swedish government for excavation on an area used by the Sami community.

The government’s decision appeared to bring to an end to a decade-long fight during which opposition to the open pit mine had attracted the support of Unesco and the leader of Sweden’s national church.

Jon-Mikko Länta, the chair of the Jåhkågaska Sami community, which will be most affected, said a Greta Thunberg Foundation donation of 2m Swedish krona (£158,000), had provided them with the opportunity to continue to resist the mine.

He said: “At the moment we are trying to appeal against the Swedish government’s decision to grant the concession as our legal team think it is not in line with international conventions on the rights of Indigenous people.

“It is a lot of work and expensive, which is why we are so grateful. We are hoping that if our appeal is successful that everything will go back to the Swedish government and we will at least get better terms.”

The proposed Gállok mining site, located 28 miles (45km) outside the town of Jokkmokk in the county of Norrbotten in Swedish Sápmi, has become a symbol of the fight to protect Sami culture from big business and government.

…

The Sami parliament, the representative body for people of indigenous heritage in Sweden, wrote last February to the Swedish government warning the mine would destroy grazing areas and cut off the only viable migratory route for reindeer followed by the Jåhkågasska Sami community.

Sami communities to the west and east of the mine would also be hit through a reduction in viable grazing areas already under pressure from changes to the snow conditions attributed to the climate emergency, logging, power lines and the development of a hydroelectric dam, the parliament said.

Unesco, the UN’s cultural protection wing, has spoken of a potentially “large, very large” impact on the Laponian area, the mountainous world heritage site 21 miles west of the mine.

The archbishop of Uppsala, Antje Jackelén, who heads the Church of Sweden, wrote an open letter to the Swedish prime minister, claiming that the open pit mine was “not existentially and spiritually sustainable”.

Greta Thunberg Foundation