Dear Vice Governour Gansukh, dear Governour Batbayar, dear Chair of Green Taiga Ms. Gombo, dear representatives of the Dukha community, dear reindeer herders, Elders, youth, colleagues and friends, 

On behalf of the Sámi Parliament in Norway, I would like to thank World Reindeer Herders and the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry for the invitation to take part in this important gathering. 

It is a great honour to be here in Tsagaannuur, in the ancestral homelands of the Indigenous Dukha reindeer herding community. 

To our Dukha hosts: thank you for welcoming us to your lands, your community and your culture. We are deeply grateful that we get a chance to experience your way of life and to learn from you. 

Today, reindeer herding peoples are living through rapid and profound change. Climate change is altering snow, ice, vegetation and migration conditions. Grazing lands and migration routes are increasingly fragmented by for instance land degradation, and this is also one of the main issues to be discussed during the congress. 

Decisions affecting reindeer herding must be made together with the people who hold the knowledge, live with the consequences and have cared for these lands since time immemorial. 

Traditional Indigenous Knowledge must therefore not be treated as an addition to decisions that have already been made. It must be included from the beginning and respected on equal terms. 

The knowledge of reindeer herders is not knowledge of the past alone. It is living knowledge. It helps us understand changes in nature, protect biodiversity and find sustainable ways forward. 

This Congress is also about ensuring that young people can see a future in reindeer herding. 

Young people must have access to land, education, language and knowledge. They must be given the opportunity to combine traditional ways of learning with new tools and technologies. Most importantly, they must be able to believe that reindeer herding is a life they can choose and a life that society values. 

Dear friends, 

The cooperation established through World Reindeer Herders has created lasting relationships across borders and brought the voices of reindeer herding peoples onto the international agenda. 

The days ahead give us an opportunity to listen, learn and strengthen these bonds. 

We must continue to strengthen these bonds. 

In a time of climate crisis, biodiversity loss and growing pressure on our land, the world should not only ask how reindeer herding can survive. 

The world should ask what it can learn from reindeer herding peoples. 

Let us use this Congress to strengthen our common voice. 

Let us protect the lands that sustain our cultures. 

And let us build a future in which the next generation can follow the reindeer with pride, security and hope. 

I wish you all a meaningful and successful Congress. 

Ollu giitu.