As the petroluem industry in the Russian North is experienced major growth, the traditional Nenets reindeer herding culture is being destroyed, a new report concludes.
Reindeer herders are being systematically moved to pave the way for the oil industry, the report claims.
The three-year study launched by the Academy of Finland yields alarming results. Head of the project, Professor Bruce Forbes says there is an effort to move the reindeer herders in Yamal into reservations called "areas for the preservation of national livelihoods". The world’s oldest pastoral cultures is slowly dying out.
Entire villages are being moved without listening to the residents. For instance, in Varandey, in Nenetsia, villagers were forcibly moved by helicopter one morning out of the way of an oil terminal, newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports.
Cautiously optimistic reports suggest that there is hope that oil and gas companies, local administration, and reindeer herders might be able to resolve the problems of land use together at a negotiating table. The optimism did not win much support among representatives of the reindeer herders. "We are outsiders in our own lands, outlaws of the tundra", they said. A Nenets without reindeer is a dead Nenets. "He can be shot in a snow bank any time, just like a dog."