Cultural Resilience of Social-ecological Systems in the Nenets and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Russia: A Focus on Reindeer Nomads of the Tundra

Bruce C Forbes

doi:10.5751/es-05791-180436

Abstract

Forbes, B. C. 2013. Cultural resilience of social-ecological systems in the Nenets and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Russia: a focus on reindeer nomads of the tundra. Ecology and Society 18(4): 36. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05791-180436

Highlights

Tundra Nenets nomadism is well known within and outside Russia for both the high quality of the intensive or ‘close’ reindeer herding techniques used and the iconic imagery of a long-distance migratory lifestyle that has all but vanished from most other sectors of the circumpolar Arctic (Stammler 2005a)
Nenets reindeer herding within the tundra zone straddles the Polar Ural Mountains, its rangelands encompassing >70% of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO) of the East European Arctic and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO) of West Siberia (Stammler 2005a, Rees et al 2008)
Other indigenous peoples practice reindeer herding on the tundra pastures of these regions, such as Komi-Izhemtsy and Khanty in YNAO and Komi-Izhemtsy in NAO, but the present analysis will be limited to tundra Nenets

Summary

Introduction

Tundra Nenets nomadism is well known within and outside Russia for both the high quality of the intensive or ‘close’ reindeer herding (sensu Ingold 1980) techniques used and the iconic imagery of a long-distance migratory lifestyle that has all but vanished from most other sectors of the circumpolar Arctic (Stammler 2005a). As neighboring federal districts they share key common characteristics These include the presence of large semidomestic reindeer herds managed by the indigenous Nenets, ongoing large-scale hydrocarbon development and climate warming in the past few decades (Rees et al 2008, Forbes et al 2009). At the same time the availability of fish, a critical source of protein for herders during summer migration, has decreased. This is a result of direct and indirect impacts from road, railway, and bridge construction combined with increasing competition from new workers, who fish in rivers and lakes during their free time (Forbes et al 2009). Symptoms of warming air temperatures commented on by herders in recent years include earlier break up of rivers and lakes in the spring, later freeze up in autumn, more frequent and intensive rainon-snow events in winter, and hotter summers with a greater degree of insect harassment (Rees et al 2008, Forbes and Stammler 2009, Forbes et al 2009, Bartsch et al 2010)

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion