Circularity in the Sámi nature- based livelihoods. What could EU’s circular economy policy learn from the Indigenous and local perspectives.

1) We argue that in the Sámi nature-based economies, circularity is one of the key principles.
2) There are contradictions in the EU regulations that have impaired or even prevented circularity in the Sámi nature-based livelihoods, such as reindeer herding.
3) From the Sámi perspective and from the local point of view, the EUs Circular Economy (CE) is seen as a top-down policy, not taking into account the practices that have been part of the Sámi livelihoods for centuries. Thus, we should pay more attention to the challenges of local actors in adapting to institutional CE policies as well as to how EU’s Circular policy could be implemented in a way that supports circularity which already exists in the livelihoods based on nature.
4) Regulations imposed by the EU transform local practices which may endanger the transition of traditional knowledge from generation to generation. Hence, we should examine how to simultaneously strengthen the local and Indigenous communities as well as the EU’s CE.