The first humans immigrated to North-Norway around 10 000 years ago. Then the ice sheet had retracted from the islands and the coast. Maybe these immigrants followed the reindeer flocks that entered these ice free areas. Excavations have shown that these Stone Age people reaped rich resources on land and at sea
Harvesting of natural resources has always been, and still is the girder of all human settlements in our province.
Reindeer hunting and later reindeer husbandry have provided a basis for settlement in the mountain plateau areas. On the coast have people through all times subsisted on rich fish resources. In the fjords and river valleys have hunting and fishing, and later farming, provided basis of existence for the inhabitants. In the whole province has gathering of berries and eggs been a welcome food supplement.
As we have seen, harvesting from the natures riches is a prerequisite for human settlements in North-Norway, and the availability of resource also determines the distribution of humans. In addition to food resources, the nature also provides raw materials for primary industry. Large parts of North-Norway's local societies are dependent on resources from the nature. Examples are fisheries, reindeer husbandry, forestry or farming. This implies that our societies are vulnerable to reductions in availability of resources. We must therefore harvest in a sustainable way. Overexploitation of resources could be fatal, not only for the living environment, but also for humans that depend on it.
Intense whale hunting in the end of last century led almost all the large whale species to extinction. In defiance of being protected since 1904 they are still rare. Overexploitation of the herring and capelin stocks in 1960s, 1970s and 1980s led to a collapse in the fisheries. The oceans were virtually empty and many fishermen became unemployed. This had severe negative consequences for many cities and local communities in North-Norway.
