Reindeer Fences between National Borders

Reindeer Herders’ Association is responsible for maintaining reindeer fences along national borders. They have been built along the Norwegian and Russian borders. The aim of these fences is to support the reindeer husbandry in those areas by prohibiting reindeer from crossing the borders. With Norway, the maintenance of the fences is shared with set areas for both Finland and Norway. With Russia, Finland is solely responsible of the building and maintenance of the fences.

There are 1 200 kilometres of fence along the borders with Norway (450 km) and Russia (750 km). Building and maintenance expenses are paid according the Reindeer Husbandry Act (848/1990) 39-3 § from the state funds. Other details related to the fences have been laid in the international treaties.

Building and maintaining reindeer fences and construction site housing requires the work of 54 part-time employees in 20 different cooperative areas. In addition, basic maintenance requires extra workforce annually. All this work is managed by the manager of the fence work.

There are all together 19 construction site houses and they are located in seven different municipalities and 14 different cooperative areas.

More information: Manager of the fence work

Struggle against snow

Fence men at work (Youtube)