Petroleum Industri Destroys Reindeer Herding Culture
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, a new report claims, reports BarentsObserver.com.
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".
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 Nenet without reindeer is a dead Nenet. "He can be shot in a snow bank any time, just like a dog."