CRC/C/97/D/172/2022 environment 1-ton drilling machines and 5-ton support vehicles to provide a water source for the drilling. The authors note that the machines, the workers and the tracks left in the snow would cause great harm to the reindeer and their Sami herders: the herds may follow such tracks or be dispersed by what they see and hear, and the exploration project would therefore make Sami reindeer herding unsustainable, due to a collapse in the herding system. As explained by the chair of the Käsivarsi Reindeer Herders’ Cooperative, reindeer follow tracks in the snow, and any unknown tracks cause problems for traditional reindeer herding; reindeer could end up in areas that do not have favourable conditions for digging and finding food and start losing weight. According to the chair of the Käsivarsi Reindeer Herders’ Cooperative, those are the kinds of threats and fears that the Sami have to constantly fight to ensure the survival of their culture. However, despite fighting, there is no certainty for the future, which undermines the belief of young Sami in their future in reindeer herding. 2.9 According to the authors, the Safety and Chemicals Agency granted the permit to the Geological Survey of Finland without a proper impact assessment and without the proper involvement of their reindeer herding community. At no stage was there even a proper assessment of the adverse impact on reindeer herding in the area affected by the exploration works. According to the authors, the obligations arising from the Mining Act in relation to the impact assessment must be interpreted in the light of international standards on Indigenous rights. 7 Furthermore, while the performance of an assessment requires an understanding of Sami culture, neither the Safety and Chemicals Agency nor the Geological Survey of Finland is familiar with Sami culture, leading to a situation in which the conditions set out in the exploration permit to reduce harm to reindeer herding are impossible to enforce. According to the permit, the holder is to see to it that the momentarily visible tracks created by snowmobiles or tracked vehicles do not increase the unmanaged movement of reindeer from one area to another. According to the authors, the impact assessment was substituted by a pro forma consultation that did not entail a good faith effort to obtain their free, prior and informed consent. In the absence of the effective participation of the Sami, considering that effective consultation should be based on an independent impact assessment, the procedure applied before issuing the permit did not meet the standards of free, prior and informed consent. Moreover, representatives of Kova-Labba siida were not invited to the negotiations. Two representatives of the Käsivarsi Reindeer Herders’ Cooperative were heard, but they are not members of the village that herds reindeer in the planned exploration area. 2.10 On 8 August 2016, the chair of the Käsivarsi Reindeer Herders’ Cooperative, on behalf of all members of the Cooperative, including the authors, together with the Sami Parliament and the Lapland Branch of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, appealed the decision of 7 July 2016 to the Administrative Court of Northern Finland. 2.11 On 19 December 2018, the Administrative Court of Northern Finland dismissed the appeal and upheld the decision to grant the exploration permit, pointing to the involvement of the Sami Parliament and the Käsivarsi Reindeer Herders’ Cooperative in the permit procedure. 2.12 On 18 January 2019, the Käsivarsi Reindeer Herders’ Cooperative, on behalf of all members of the Cooperative, including the authors, the Sami Parliament and the Lapland Branch of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, filed a request for leave to appeal and an appeal before the Supreme Administrative Court. 2.13 On 21 June 2021, the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the appeal, considering that: (a) consulting the Sami had been sufficient for the purposes of the Mining Act; (b) the conditions set out in the exploration permit to reduce possible harm to reindeer herding (namely, requirements that works were to be carried out outside the calving season, limited at times of the year that were important for reindeer husbandry and carried out only when the areas in which reindeer might be located had been cleared in advance) were sufficient; and (c) the area of the planned exploration works was relatively small. However, the Court compared the exploration area not with the size of Kova-Labba siida, the community directly 7 4 cover has not frozen over the vegetation; these conditions keep the vegetation edible and available so that reindeer can smell lichen and dig through the snow. See also United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, preambular para. 10 and art. 32 (2).