Understanding adaptation landscapes: mapping the complexity of decision-making in reindeer herding

A dynamic world requires people to constantly adapt their behavior and make decisions to maintain or enhance relationships between each other and the environment. Where the combined effects of anthropogenic and environmental change affect the livelihoods of Indigenous people, their options to pursue preferred adaptation strategies are often restricted by competing land uses. In this context, the authors explore how Sámi reindeer herders in Northern Sweden navigate the complexity of decision-making on adaptation, specifically decisions regarding supplementary feeding when winter grazing resources are inaccessible.

How are decisions made and where are they positioned on an adaptation-maladaptation continuum? In a participatory approach with two reindeer herding communities, the authors use fuzzy cognitive mapping to explore the multi-dimensional complexity surrounding supplementary feeding. Their results emphasize the herders’ conviction that supplementary feeding is not a preferred adaptation strategy. It is rather a forced response driven by complex system dynamics that transform their pastoral landscape.

To maintain the preferred traditional herding practices, desired adaptation measures viewed from a herding perspective should thus center at the system level, such as halting the loss and restoring already lost grazing grounds. This would require meaningful recognition and demands inclusion of reindeer herders’ right to self-determination into adaptation policies to mitigate environmental change.