New look at territories of traditional nature use – traditional nature management lands at the coastal zone of the Ice Silk Road: a case study for the Russian Arctic

ABSTRACT

Territories of traditional nature use (TTNU) of indigenous population in the Arctic zone presents a historical model of sustainable development whose main principles are valuable for modern practice of economic activities in this region as well. Indigenous peoples traditional nature management practice in the Russian Arctic nowadays exists only within tribal community lands, though their virtual limits may be larger and known to indigenous population, helping to preserve regional identities. Preservation of TTNU in the course of modern economic development, including the Northern Silk Road coastal infrastructure, is important for regional ecological and social stability. They may be regarded as ecological buffer zones, restoring ecosystem functions important for regional sustainable development, though modern market economy treats them mainly as economic units less valuable for incomes than industrial. A new look at TTNU may be supported by their ecological-economic assessment. A case study in the coastal Nenets TTNU belonging to family-clan community ‘Ya’Erv’ demonstrates its possible input to local sustainable development.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous peoples
• Russian Arctic
• traditional nature management
• ecosystem services value
• sustainable development
• Ice Silk Road

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant numbers 17-55-53109 and 18-05-00475) and Russian Science Foundation (grant number 18-17-00074) in a part of the methodology atlas information systems.