Jokkmokk City Council: "They see us as the Amazon"

It is close to national parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 areas in Jokkmokk and the municipal management thinks it has now gone too far.

Today, more than 50 percent of the municipality's total area is protected and plans for an additional 66 nature reserves are planned.

So the governing majority has appealed the County Administrative Board's decision on the new nature reserve Jelka Rimakåbbå to the government and hopes that the decision will be demolished.

The municipal council Robert Bernhardsson (S) is very critical of what he experiences as a lack of dialogue from the county administrative board.

- They see us as an Amazon to be protected and we don't think that's good. It was a representative of the county administrative board who said so at a forest conference in Jokkmokk and now it is an expression that is unfortunately used within the authority, he says.

Instead, Robert Bernhardsson wants to develop the business community and perhaps especially the tourism industry by making more municipal land accessible to visitors.

- We need five times the visitor industry in order for it to become a new basic industry for Jokkmokk, but the county administrative board's age-old way of thinking instead limits our opportunity for development and we cannot accept that.

Governor Björn O. Nilsson does not recognize the term Amazon when Jokkmokk municipality is to be described.

- I haven't heard that and I should have done it if it is used in the business. Definitely not. That must stand for Robert Bernhardsson, he says.

So you don't see Jokkmokk's municipality as an Amazon?

- Absolutely not. Why would I do that?

The governor now hopes that the parties will step out of the trenches and reach a consensus on the protected nature area.

- We do not want to put up a sign with the message, "Nature reserve - closed for development". We have to find each other so we can get started on development and also protect nature, says Björn O.Nilsson.