When Magnus Andersson goes out every day to see his reindeer herd, he is never sure that all his animals will be there. The reindeer have to travel longer and longer distances to find pasture and sometimes disappear. They can also end up crushed and seriously injured on the shoulder of a road. Magnus is a shepherd from the Sami village of Ran, located in Västerbotten County, in northern Sweden. For him, reindeer herding is, in addition to his economic livelihood, a way of life linked to his culture, his ancestors and nature.
In this Sami community, there are 25 herders with 10,000 reindeer. Decades ago, the animals grazed from the mountains near the Norwegian border to the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, following the Vindeln River. However, this migration is very complicated today, as the forests that serve as a habitat for the reindeer are disappearing.