Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:17:28.225Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reindeer herding and petroleum development on Poluostrov Yamal: sustainable or mutually incompatible uses?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Bruce C. Forbes
Bruce C. Forbes
Affiliation:
Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Box 122, 96101 Rovaniemi, Finland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Yamal Nenets have exploited reindeer via hunting and/or husbandry in northwest Siberia for several hundred years, although wild reindeer have been virtually absent on Poluostrov Yamal since the early 1900s. Nonetheless, the region retains large populations of wild animals, indicating that nomadic pastoralists, semi-domestic animals, and wildlife were not competing vigorously for resources or space prior to industrialization. Natural-gas development is a relative newcomer to the region, but has already had a significant impact on the bio-physical and socioeconomic environments. The withdrawal of lands for industrial infrastructure, in addition to direct and cumulative impacts from three decades of exploration, has led to a serious decline in the quantity and quality of the remaining tundrasuitable for reindeer pasture.

Available records indicate that some preferred fur-bearing game species have been significantly reduced in recent years, primarily by non-natives. At the same time, it appears that extensive grazing by the reindeer themselves is having an overall negative effect on the area's pastures. Specifically, reindeer grazing is resulting in the thinning of the organic layer on well-drained ground and the exposure of fine-grained sands. The surfaces of these patches are highly erodable and unstable, therefore spreading easily as long as they remain unvegetated. The significant expansion of such areas is a genuine threat as long as, first, industrial development continues to degrade the land, and, second, the numbers of reindeer remain at current levels or increase.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 35 , Issue 195 , October 1999 , pp. 317 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, B. 1994. Gas development means trouble in the pipeline for Siberia's reindeer herders. International Wildlife Magazine 06: 4–11.Google Scholar
Chernov, Yu.I. (editor). 1997. Krasnoye kniga Yamato-Nenetskii avtonomo okrug [Red book of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug]. Ekaterinburg: Urals University Press.Google Scholar
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. 1998. Gazprom: emerging Europe oil and gas. London: Morgan Grenfell & Company (Shareholder's report, 12 December 1997, updated 9 July 1998).Google Scholar
Dobrinskii, L.N. (editor). 1997. Monitoring bioty poluostrova Yamal v sviazis ravitiem obiectiv dobychii transportitovki gaza [Monitoring of the Yamal Peninsula biota with regard to the gas exploration and transportation development]. Ekaterinburg: Akademia Nauk, Urals Branch.Google Scholar
Dobrinskii, L.N., and Sosin, V.F.. 1995. Assessment of Bovanenkovo gas field development in central Yamal on the dynamics of Arctic fox populations. Russian Journal of Ecology 26: 227–231.Google Scholar
Evdokimova, T.V. 1999. Assessment of the risk of critical ecological situations emergent on reindeer pastures of the Bolshezemelskaya tundra. Unpublished paper presented at the International Workshop on the Human Role in Reindeer/Caribou Systems, 10–14 February 1999, Rovaniemi.Google Scholar
Fedorova, N. (editor). 1998. Ushedshie v kholmy [Gone to the hills: culture of the coastal residents of the Yamal Peninsula during the Iron Age]. Ekaterinburg: History and Archaeology Institute.Google Scholar
Forbes, B.C. 1995. Tundra disturbance studies. III. Short-term effects of aeolian sand and dust, Yamal region, northwest Siberia, Russia. Environmental Conservation 22: 335–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, B.C. 1997. Tundra disturbance studies. IV. Species establishment on anthropogenic primary surfaces, Yamal peninsula, northwest Siberia, Russia. Polar Geography 21: 79–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, B.C., and Jefferies, R.L.. 1999. Revegetation of disturbed Arctic sites: constraints and applications. Biological Conservation 88: 15–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuhrman, P. 1995. Robber baron. Forbes 11 09: 208–220.Google Scholar
Golovnev, A.V., and Osherenko, G.. 1999. Siberian survival: the Yamal Nenets and their story. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golovnev, A.V., Osherenko, G., Pribylskii, Yu.P., and Schindler, D.L.. 1998. Indigenous peoples and the development of the Yamal peninsula. Lysaker: Fridtjof Nansen Institute (INSROP working paper 112).Google Scholar
Golovnev, A.V., and Zaitsev, G.S.. 1992. Istoria Yamala [History of the Yamal]. Ekaterinburg: History and Archaeology Institute.Google Scholar
Helle, T., and Aspi, J.. 1984. Do sandy patches help reindeer against insects? Reports from the Kevo Subarctic Field Station 19: 57–62.Google Scholar
Khitun, O. 1997. Self-recovery after technogenic and natural disturbances in the central part of the Yamal peninsula (western Siberian Arctic). In: Crawford, R.M.M. (editor). Disturbance and recovery in Arctic lands: an ecological perspective. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic: 531–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klebnikov, P. 1997. Sorcerer's apprentice. Forbes Magazine International 22 09.Google Scholar
Korytin, N.S., Dobrinskii, L.N., Danilov, A.N., Dobrinskii, N.L., Kryzhimskii, F.V., Malafeev, Y.M., Pavlinin, V.V., Sosin, V.F., and Shiliyaeva, L.M.. 1995. Mammals. In: Dobrinskii, L.N. (editor). Priroda Yamala [The nature of Yamal]. Ekaterinburg: Nauka: 226–298.Google Scholar
Krupnik, I. 1993. Arctic adaptations: native whalers and reindeer herders of northern Eurasia. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.Google Scholar
Leibman, M.O., and Egorov, I.P.. 1996. Climatic and environmental controls of cryogenic landslides, Yamal, Russia. In: Senneset, K. (editor). Landslides. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema: 1941–1946.Google Scholar
Magomedova, M., Morozova, L, and Martens, H.. 1997.Pasture land monitoring on the Yamal peninsula. In: Kuznetsova, E.G., and Archegova, I.B. (editors). Development of the north and problems of recultivation. Syktyvkar: Komi Science Centre: 127–131.Google Scholar
Martens, H. 1995. Revegetation research western Siberia: year 4. Calgary: Harvey Martens & Associates (report prepared for Amoco Eurasia Production Company).Google Scholar
Martens, H., Magomedova, M., and Morozova, L.. 1996. Rangeland studies in the Bovanenkovo proposed development area: year 3. Calgary: Harvey Martens & Associates; Ekaterinburg: Institute of Flora and Fauna (report prepared for Amoco Eurasia Production Company).Google Scholar
Okotetto, M.N., and Forbes, B.C.. 1999. Conficts between Yamal-Nenets reindeer husbandry and petroleum development in the forest-tundra and tundra region of northwest Siberia. In: Kankaanpaa, S., Tasanen, T., and Sutinen, M.-L. (editors). Sustainable development in northern timberline forests. Helsinki: Finnish Forest Research Institute: 95–99.Google Scholar
Pavlov, A.V. 1997. Patterns of frozen ground formation accompanying recent climate changes. Polar Geography 21: 137–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pika, A., and Bogoyavlensky, D.. 1995. Yamal peninsula: oil and gas development and problems of demography and health among indigenous populations. Arctic Anthropology 32: 61–74.Google Scholar
Podkoritov, F.M. 1995. Olyenedstvo Yamala [Reindeer herding on Yamal]. Sosnovyi Bor: Leningrad Atomic Electrical Station.Google Scholar
Reynolds, J.F., and Tenhunen, J.D. (editors). 1996. Landscape function and disturbance in Arctic tundra. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Usher, P., and Wenzel, G.W.. 1987. Native harvest surveys and statistics: a critique of their construction and use. Arctic 40: 145–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vilchek, G.E. (editor). 1992. West Siberian north: environmental disturbance and management. Moscow: Orbis Independent Research Center.Google Scholar
Vilchek, G.E. 1997. Arctic ecosystem stability and disturbance: a west Siberian case history. In: Crawford, R.M.M. (editor). Disturbance and recovery in Arctic lands: an ecological perspective. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic: 179–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vilchek, G.E., and Bykova, O.Y.. 1992. The origin of regional ecological problems within the northern Tyumen Oblast', Russia. Arctic and Alpine Research 24: 99–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vitebsky, P. 1990. Gas, environmentalism, and native anxieties in the Soviet Arctic: the case of Yamal peninsula. Polar Record 26: 19–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, D.A. 1997. Arctic Alaskan vegetation disturbance and recovery: a hierarchic approach to the issue of cumulative impacts. In: Crawford, R.M.M. (editor). Disturbance and recovery in Arctic lands: an ecological perspective. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic: 457–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar