Possibilities for, and attitudes towards, a potential reintroduction of wild forest reindeer Rangifer tarandus fennicus Lönn. to parts of Sweden.

Abstract The wild forest reindeer is a subspecies of the reindeer. Wild forest reindeer earlier had a wide distribution range in Sweden, but it was extinct in the middle of the 19:th century because of extensive hunting. In Finland, the w.f.reindeer was extinct a few decades later by similar reasons. Later they migrated back to the eastern parts of Finland in the middle of the 20: th century. Around 1980, the w.f.reindeer was actively rentroduced to western Finland, and there the population has had a positive development. In eastern Finland though, the population have declined fast during the last years. This is partly due to an increased abundance of large predators, particularly wolf. In this study I investigated the possibilities for, and attitudes towards, a reintroduction of w.f.reindeer in parts of Sweden. My result indicates that the environmental possibilities for a reintroduction of w.f. reindeer to parts of Sweden probably are fairly good to good. The attitudes towards the w.f.reindeer is both positive and negative, much depending if you ask a hunter or an owner of semi-domestic reindeer. Many persons in my study can see several benefits with a reintroduction of w.f. reindeer, e.g. increase of hunting and recreational value of the nature. A problem that a reintroduction of w.f.reindeer in Sweden could cause, is that the w.f.reindeer can be mixed with the herds of semi-domestic reindeer. Experiences from Finland show that the reindeermanagement is disturbed when this happens. This is an important problem, or challenge, to solve if a reintroduction should be possible in the future