OSLO (Reuters) -Norway has reached an agreement with Sami reindeer herders that allows the country's largest wind farm to stay in operation, ending a dispute over Indigenous rights, the energy ministry said on Wednesday.
Norway's supreme court ruled in 2021 that the Storheia and Roan wind farms in Fosen in central Norway violated Sami rights under international conventions - prompting huge protests last year over the protracted process to implement the ruling.
An agreement was reached in December with one group of reindeer herders, in Fosen South, while a second group, Fosen North, had continued to oppose the wind farms.
Wednesday's agreement encompassed the northern group of herders and operator Roan Vind, owned by Aneo, Germany's Stadtwerke Muenchen and Nordic Wind Power, the Norwegian ministry said.
A spokesperson for the herders confirmed that a settlement had been signed.
"The deal contains additional land, which we are completely dependent on," Elise Holtan Pavall of the North Fosen reindeer herder group told Reuters.
Roan will pay annual compensation for the continued operations, allowing the turbines to stand, the government said.
"This agreement secures the rights of reindeer herders at North Fosen both now and in the future," Roan Vind CEO Roger Beite Faerestrand said in a separate statement.
The agreement includes the procurement of additional winter grazing rights and veto right for any plans to extend the wind farm's operating licences past the year 2045.
"This means that the licensees cannot apply for an extension or renewal of the concession without consent from the North Fosen herders," the ministry said.