I know that many of my people from Norway would like to come here and do this protection action for the forests, but many hundred years of country borders have left tracks, and the track is that we are still shy about those borders. We respect the borders, and even we don't like to say that. The only border that is nowadays very visible, so it is practical that one can see the border, is the border to the Russian part of the Sápmi. there are very many bad things going on in Russian Sápmi, especially in terms of pollution, logging and tourism. Tourism itself is not a bad thing, but the tourism as it is run now in Russia is a very bad thing, because the Sápmi people are simply chased away from their traditional rivers and lakes. It is the big companies, which nowadays own the rivers and areas, and they have armed guards which guard their areas. And thus my people don't come close to the borders, nor can they think about running any tourism either.

But we are in this part of Sápmi, and we are trying to protect the forest here. Very close to here we have another camp, of loggers. We came here last night, and we slept here. It was very clear that this other camp is not a friendly camp to us. They were running their chainsaws, and they were banging on metal, doing lots of noise. The funny thing is that they have a big sign saying "anti-terror info camp". What those guys are doing, is really terrorism, for if you don't let people sleep, then it is a kind of terror, even if it is a lighter kind of terror. All we can do of it is that we make fun of it, for it doesn't help start a war, for that is the bottom level.

I know that Greenpeace and many of you activists are used to this kind of actions and campaigning. and I know that the aim is not to fight with local guys, that your aim is to get the focus on the global level of the forests. This forest is a really unique thing, also globally it can be compared with the rainforest. and I think it's very effective even if things seem to be very slow... I think it will be effective.

One of the most effective things is human thought, the way you think, and that is what we are doing tonight. We will have a ceremony. I will not start behaving like a priest, just talking and making you listen. My aim is that we can do this meeting and ceremony together. So I would like to ask some of you to say a few words for this occasion, so I can have a little break, and don't have to be too serious. I hope you are enjoying the tea we are making. it is Mardoeke who has been picking the herbs in our local areas in the summer. and I hope that the tea is tasty and good.

I didn't think that I am so famous that I wouldn't have to say who I am. My name is Niillas Somby, and I am from the Norwegian side of the Sápmi. And my lifetrack is that of an activist for landrights and environmental issues.

- Niillas

Niillas does the wolf yoik, © Greenpeace/Dave Walsh