Summary of Working Paper No. 148-1999
IV.4.1
The Nenets Autonomous Okrug is expected to be an important new area of
commercial interest for the Northern Sea Route by the year 2000. This region is
extremely rich with hydrocarbon resources - the main reason for its involvement in
the activities of the largest international and national companies.
The remoteness of the okrug from industrial areas and the self-sufficient
style of life have formed a specific type of settlement among the Nenets people.
All communities are located on river or marine coasts, giving people access to
water transport ways and providing them with different possibilities of marine
subsistence: fishery and/or marine mammal hunting (which sometimes are combined
with reindeer breeding).
The appearance of a new, very active, and "aggressive" branch of economy,
namely the oil and gas industry, inevitably leads to a changing of traditional land
use patterns and growing social tension. Expected increase in marine vessel
traffic along arctic coasts and mouths of rivers will bring disturbances of
different types to traditional fishery and marine mammal hunting. It might make
worse the depressed state of fishery, an important field of subsistence for local
people. The main task of the local authorities is to find a possible balance
between rapidly growing industrial activity and the poorly developed local economy
that needs financial support. Obviously, one of the possible sources of such
support could be the industrial sector, if their interrelations with local
communities are characterized by an equitable partnership and mutual understanding.
Expanding use of the NSR is currently stipulated by the oil and gas industry,
while needs of the local economy could be satisfied without the expensive
services of the NSR. In accordance with the latest decisions of the RF government
(May 1998), the delivery of necessary goods (fuel, consumer goods and food) for
the local economy and population is under the direction of the local
authorities. They will determine how much and by what transport means cargo should be
delivered to their region. The attitude of regional authorities to the NSR could
change as they investigate and compare all possible variants. Where the interests
of local authorities and owners of marine vessels or industrial companies
coincide, shipment of locally needed goods can be combined with general deliveries
of cargo for oil fields. Local authorities could even require such shipments as
a permit condition for industrial companies operating on okrug territory.
Taking into account the rather strict environmental rules of the Nenets Okrug
regarding industrial activities and land withdrawal, participation of the
industrial companies in
From the point of view of native interest, a rapid growth of industrial
activity in the Nenets okrug cannot be assessed only as a negative process which will
inevitably bring land and environmental losses for the traditional economy of
indigenous peoples. Native peoples of the NAO are in a very hard economic
situation, formed by the transition to a market economy under conditions of sharply
decreased federal support. The traditional economy is not able to efficiently
regulate such a transition without outside financial help, which is expected to
come from industrial companies which have commercial interests in the Nenets
Okrug territory. The problem is whether local authorities will be able to place
the interests of indigenous people on an equal base with other okrug interests
in negotiations with industrial companies. At present, Russian law does not
afford indigenous people