Participation of the Northern Indigenous Peoples in the Management of the Russian Arctic Territories and Its Legal Protection

• Authors: Elena Gladun , Gennady Chebotarev
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper is an overview of the participation of the northern indigenous peoples in the public management of the Arctic territories in Russia. Different forms of participation are described, and most attention is paid to the co-management of the governments and the indigenous peoples when their mutual aim is protecting the Arctic and its natural landscapes in the period of extensive industrial development. The principle objective of the paper is to analyze the international and national legal regulations and to show some effective legal mechanisms through which participation can be developed in Russia. The authors study definitions of participation, the main international principles of participation and give a deep analysis of the legislation of the Russian Federation, which provides the framework for indigenous participation. Much attention is paid to the legislation of the federative regions of Russia which are inhabited by the northern indigenous peoples. Mostly the authors study the example of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area, the Arctic area of Russia with the biggest gas reserves, inhabited by the Nenets. The first conclusion made in the paper is that the Arctic countries must not only prioritize the exploitation of rich Arctic resources, but also be aware that the Arctic is primarily the home and the area of the traditional lifestyle and occupations of the northern indigenous peoples who have lived there for a long time. The northern indigenous peoples are interested in cooperation with the governments according to their traditional values and knowledge; they want to be involved in the decision-making process and management of their territories and resources. The second conclusion is that a patchwork of federal laws regulating indigenous issues in Russia does not grant any special rights that let the northern indigenous peoples participate in the decision-making process concerning the lands and resources in the Arctic areas. The federal government mostly implements the concept of paternalism but not the concept of participation. The federative regions in their regulations provide considerably more opportunities for participation. However, the regions are quite restricted by the federal legislation. The regulations are fragmentary on both the federal and the regional levels, there is no system of public authorities providing for consultation, cooperation, agreements and other forms of indigenous participation. Moreover, in Russia there is very little experience in the realization of the participation of the Arctic territories and resources. The third, and most important, conclusion is that participation in the management of the Arctic territories should become a new element of the Russian Arctic policy. From this perspective it is necessary to ratify and sign two international documents – Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – and to incorporate the basic principles of participation into the Russian federal legislation. Also it is vital to establish a specialized federal body on indigenous issues with a special focus on the northern indigenous peoples. Lastly, the legal and administrative capabilities of regions and local authorities should be increased, and the regional and local bodies should be vested with the power to involve indigenous peoples in the management of the northern territories.

Keywords

EN

participation; indigenous peoples; the Arctic; legislation; public authorities

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 111-133

Dates

published

2015-06-01

online

2015-07-27

Contributors

author

Elena Gladun

• Associate professor, Tyumen State University, Tyumen, Russia.

author

Gennady Chebotarev

• President, professor, Tyumen State University, Tyumen, Russia.

References

• Abate, Randall S. and Elizabeth Ann Kronk (eds). 2013. Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples: The Search for Legal Remedies. Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Abrams, Peter, Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, Julia Gardner and Pippa Heylings. 2003. Evaluating Governance: A Handbook to Accompany a Participatory Process for a Protected Area. Report for Parks Canada and CEESP/CMWG/TILCEPA presented at the 5th World Parks Congress, Durban (South Africa), September.
• Abryutina, Larisa, and Valery Chashchin. 2004. “Lifestyle, Social and Economic Status of Indigenous Peoples.” In Sulyandzig, a Pavel et al (ed.). Persistent Toxic Substances, Food Security and Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North. Final Report. Oslo: AMAP Secretariat, 20 – 21. Available at (last accessed 31. 05. 2015).
• African Charter for Popular Participation in Development and Transformation. 1990. Adopted at the International Conference on Popular Participation in the Recovery and Development Process in Africa, held in Arusha in 1990. Available at (last accessed 22. 06. 2015).
• Agenda 21. 1992. United Nations Conference on Environment & Development, 3 – 14 June, Rio de Janerio, Brazil. Available at (last accessed 31. 05. 2015).
• Andrichenko, Liudmila. 2005. Regulirovanie i Zaschita Prav Nacionalnyh Menshinstv i Korennyh Malochislennyh Narodov v Rossiikoi Federatsii [Regulating and Protecting the Rights of National Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in the Russian Federation]. PhD diss., Moscow State University. Available at DisserCat. (last accessed 02. 06. 2015).
• Arctic Info. 2014. Indigenous Peoples of the North. Available at (last accessed 03. 04. 2015).
• Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme. 2004. Persistent Toxic Substances, Food Security and Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North. Final Report: Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme Final Report. Oslo: AMAP Secretariat. Available at (last accessed 31. 05. 2015).
• Baker, Betsy. 2013. From the Gulf of Mexico to the Beaufort Sea: Inuit Involvement in Off shore Oil and Gas Decisions in Alaska and the Western Canadian. Environmental Law Reporter News & Analysis. 43, 10925.
• Batyanova, E. P., I. V. Bakhmazkaya, I. V. Vlasova and X. P. Poplavskaya 2009. Narody Rossii. Atlas Kultur i Religii [Peoples of Russia. Atlas of Cultures and Religions]. Moscow: Feoria.
• Berkes, Fikret, Peter George and Richard J. Preston. 1991. “Co-management.” Alternatives 18(2), 12 – 18.
• Borrini-Feyerabend, Grazia. 1996. Collaborative Management of Protected Areas: Tailoring the Approach to the Context. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. Available at (last accessed 24. 03. 2015).
• Borrini-Feyerabend, G., M. T. Farvar, J. C. Nguinguiri and V. A. Ndangang. 2000. Co-management of Natural Resources: Organising, Negotiating and Learning by-Doing. Heidelberg, Germany: GTZ, Kasparek. Available at (last accessed 03. 03. 2015, also available in French and Spanish).
• Borrini-Feyerabend, Grazia, Michel Pimbert, Taghi M. Farvar, Ashish Kothari and Yves Renard. 2004. In Borrini-Feyerabend, Grazia and Michel Pimbert (ed.). Sharing Power. Learning by Doing in Co-management of Natural Resources Throughout the World. Tehran: IIED and IUCN/CEESP/CMWG, Cenesta: 68.
• Borrini-Feyerabend, Grazia and Trevor Sandwith. 2003. “From Guns and Fences to Paternalism to Partnerships: The Slow Disentangling of Africa’s Protected Areas.” Parks 13(1), 1 – 5. Available at (last accessed 02. 06. 2015).
• Constitution of the Russian Federation. 2014. SZ RF 31: 4398 Available at (last accessed 04. 03. 2015).
• Damas, David. 2004. Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers: The Transformation of Inuit Settlement in the Central Arctic. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
• Directorate of the UNEP/GEF Russian Federation: Support to the National Program of Action for the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment. 2009. Environmental Co-Management of Extracting Companies, Authorities and Indigenous Peoples of the North. Moscow: Demonstration Project of the United Nations Environment Programme. The Batani International Development Fund for Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East: 49 – 50 Available at (last accessed 04. 03. 2015).
• DRIPS. 2007. United Nations Declaration On the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Available at (last accessed 13. 04. 2015).
• Federalnyi Zakon [Federal Law] No. 209-FZ. 2009. Ob Ohote i o Sohranenii Ohotnichih Resursov i o Vnesenii Izmenenii v Otdelnye Zakonodatelnye Akty Rossiiskoi Federacii [Hunting and Preservation of Hunting Resources]. SZ RF 30: 3735.
• Federalnyi Zakon [Federal Law] No. 49-FZ. 2001. O Territoriah Tradicionnogo Priridopolzovania Korennyh Malochislennyh Narodov Severa, Sibiri i Dalnego Vostoka Rossiiskoi Federacii [Territories of Traditional Resource Use of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation]. SZ RF 20: 1972.
• Foundations of Russian Federation Policy in the Arctic until 2020 and beyond. 2009. Available at (last accessed 02. 06. 2015).
• Fow, Samantha J. 2012. “The Arctic Sustainability Principle”. Vermont Journal of Environmental Law 13, 53.
• Ghai, Dharam and Jessica M. Vivian (eds). 1992. Grassroots Environmental Action: People’s Participation in Sustainable Development. London: Routledge.
• Gray, Barbara. 1989. Collaborating: Finding Common Ground in Multiparty Problems. San Francisco/Oxford: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
• GRIPRF. Federalnyi Zakon [Federal Law] No. 82-FZ. 1999. O garantiyah prav korennyh malochislennyh narodov Rossiskoi Federatsii [Guarantees of Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Russian Federation]. SZ RF 18: 2208.
• Holland, Jeremy and James Blackburn. 1998. Whose Voice? Participatory Research and Policy Change. London: Intermediate Technology Publications.
• Hornstein, Donald T. 1999. “Environmental Sustainability and Environmental Justice at the International Level: Traces of Tension and Traces of Synergy”. Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum Spring. 9, 291.
• Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169. 1989. Available at (last accessed 02. 06. 2015).
• Kharyuchi, Sergei. 2009. “Rol Gosudarstva v Garmonizatsii Promyshlennogo Osvoenia i Ustoichivogo Razvitia Malochislennyh Narodov Severa” [The Role of the Government in Balancing of Industrial Development and Sustainable Development of the Northern Indigenous Peoples]. Mir Korennyh Narodov – Zhivaya Arktika [The world of Indigenous Peoples – Live Arctic] 22, 87 – 90.
• Krupnik, Igor. 1993. Arctic Adaptation: Native Whalers and Reindeer Herders of Northern Eurasia. Hanover: UPNE.
• Kryazhkov, Vladimir. 2014. “Pravovoe Regulirovanie Otnoshenii Mezhdu Korennymi Malochislennymi Narodami Severa i Nedropolzovatelyami v Rossiiskoi Federatsii” [Legal Regulations of Cooperation Between the Northern Indigenous Peoples and Subsoil Users in the Russian Federation]. Gosudarstvo i Pravo 7, 27 – 39. Available at (last accessed 03. 06. 2015).
• Kryazhkov, Vladimir. 2013. “Organy Publichnoi Vlasti i Severnye Narody: Konstitucionno-Pravovye Problemy v Sfere Soupravlenia” [Public Authorities and the Northern Peoples: Constitutional and Legal Issues of Co-Management] In Rudenko, Viktor (ed.). Arkticheskie Regiony Rosii: Problemy Parlamentarisma, Predstavitelstva i Regionalnoi Identichnosti. Ot Rodovyh Obschin k Parlamentu Yamala [The Arctic Regions of Russia: the Problems of Parliamentary System, Representation and Regional Identity. From Tribal Communities to the Yamal Parliament]. Yekaterinburg/Salekhard: Basko.
• Lesnoi Kodeks Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Forest Code of the Russian Federation] No. 200-FZ. 2006. SZ RF 50; 5278.
• McCay, Bonnie J. and James M. Acheson (eds). 1987. The Question of the Commons. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press.
• NORMLEX. 2015. Information System on International Labour Standards. Available at (last accessed 02. 02. 2015).
• Osherenko, Gail. 2001. “Indigenous Rights In Russia: Is Title to Land Essential for Cultural Survival?” Georgetown International Environmental Law Review 13, 695.
• Park, Eunjung. 2008. “Searching for a Voice: The Indigenous People in Polar Regions.” Sustainable Development Law & Policy 8 (3), 64 – 65.
• Pomeroy, Robert S. and Fikret Berkes. 1997. “Two to Tango: the Role of Government in Fisheries Co-Management.” Marine Policy 21(5), 465 – 480.
• Postanovlenie Pravitelstva YANAO [Resolution of the Government of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area] No. 90-P. 2010. Krasnyi Sever 7, 83.
• Rasporyazhenie Pravitelstva RF [Order of the Government of the Russian Federation] No. 132-p. The Concept for the Sustainable Development of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation. 2009. SZ RF 7, 876.
• Rusnak, Gerret. 1997. Co-Management of Natural Resource in Canada: A Review of Concepts and Case Studies. Rural Poverty and Environment Working Paper Series. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre.
• Sanford, E. Gaines. 2002. “Triangulating Sustainable Development: International Trade, Environmental Protection, and Development.” Environmental Law Reporter 32, 10318 – 10347.
• Shutkin, William A. 1991. “International Human Rights Law and the Earth: The Protection of Indigenous Peoples and the Environment.” Virginia Journal of International Law 31, 479.
• Smith, Eric Alden, Joan McCarter and Kurt Engelmann. 1997. Contested Arctic: Indigenous Peoples, Industrial States, and the Circumpolar Environment. Seattle: Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies Center at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies in association with University of Washington Press.
• Stevens, Stan (ed.). 2004 [1997]. Conservation through Cultural Survival. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. In Sharing Power: Learning by Doing in Comanagement of Natural Resources throughout the World. Tehran: IIED and IUCN/CEESP/CMWG, Cenesta.
• Sulyandziga, Rodion. 2011a. “Princip Svobodnogo, Predvaritelnogo i Osoznannogo Soglasia – Eto To, k Chemu My Dolzhny Stremitsya v Partnerstve s Gosudarstvom” [The Principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent is the Objective We Have to Follow in the Cooperation with the Government]. Mir Korennyh Narodov: Zhivaya Arktika [The world of Indigenous Peoples: Live Arctic] 27: 4.
• Sulyandziga, Rodion. 2011b. “Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON).” Paper presented at UN Permanent Forum on indigenous issues X Session, Agenda item 3, 7 May. Available at (last accessed 02. 06. 2015).
• Towards a New Millennium. 2002. Ten Years of the Indigenous Movements in Russia. Copenhagen: IWGIA.
• Turpel, Mary E. 1992. “Indigenous Peoples’ Rights of Political and Self-Determination: Recent International Legal Developments and the Continuing Struggle for Recognition.” Cornell International Law Journal 25, 579.
• UNRISD 1979. Participation Programme – A glance at the past and directions for the future, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva (Switzerland), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.
• Ustav Chukotskogo Avtonomnogo Okruga [Charter of the Chukotka Autonomous Area ] No. 26-O. 1997. Web-page of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Available online at (last accessed 02. 06. 2015).
• Ustav (Osnovnoi Zakon) Khanty-Mansiiskogo Avtonommnogo Okruga – Yugry [Charter of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area – Yugra] No. 4-oz. 1995. Novosti Yugry 44. 23 April 2005.
• Ustav (Osnovnoi Zakon) Yamalo-Nenetskogo Avtonomnogo Okruga [Charter of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area] No. 56-ZAO. 1998. Krasnyi Sever 44/1 (special edition № 22): 2008.
• Ustav Sakhalinskoi Oblasti [Charter of the Sakhalin Region]. 2001. Official Internet Agency of the Sakhalin Regional Duma, 9 July, 270. Available at (last accessed 02. 06. 2015).
• Vodnyi Kodeks Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Water Code of the Russian Federation] No. 74-FZ. 2006. SZ RF 23: 2381.
• World Bank, 1996. The World Bank Participatory Sourcebook, World Bank, Washington D.C.: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.
• Yarovoy, Gleb, Sergunin, Alexander, and Lassi Heininen. 2013. Russia’s Policy Toward the Indigenous Peoples of the North. Valdai, Discussion Club. Available at (last accessed 03. 04. 2015).
• Zakon KHMAO [Law of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area – Yugra] No. 76-oz. 2001. O Dume Khanty-Mansiiskogo Avtonomnogo Okruga [On the Duma of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area – Yugra]. Sobranie Zakonodatelstva Khanty-Mansiiskogo Avtonomnogo Okruga, 2001, 10: 1235.
• Zakon Respubliki Sakha (Yakutia) [Law of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)] No. 349-III. 2004. O Mestnom Samoupravlenii v Respubliki Sakha (Yakutia) [On Local Government in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)]. Official web-portal of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Available at (last accessed 02. 06. 2015).
• Zakon Sakhalinskoi Oblasti [Law of the Sakhalin Region] No. 463. 2003. “O Predstavitele Korennyh Malochislennyh Narodov Severa pri Sakhalinskoi Oblastnoi Dume” [On the Representative from Indigenous Small-Numbered People in the Sakhalin Regional Duma]. Internet-Journal of V. C. Levonevski. Available at (last accessed 02. 06. 2015).
• Zakon YANAO [Law of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area] No. 49-ZAO. 2006. O Zaschite Iskonnoi Sredy Obitania i Traditionnogo Obraza Zhizni Korennyh Malochislennyh Narodov Severa v Yamalo-Nenetskom Avtonomnom Okruge [On Protection of Traditional Habitat and Traditional Lifestyle of the Northern Indigenous Peoples in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area]. Krasnyi Sever 119/1 (special edition 73 – 74): 2006.
• Zakon YANAO [Law of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area] No. 114-ZAO. 2005. O Gosudarstvennoi Podderzhke Obschin Korennyh Malochislennyh Narodov Severa i Organizatsyi, Osuschestvlyauschih Vidy Tradicionnoi Hozyastvennoi Deyatelnosti na Territorii Yamalo-Nenetskogo Avtonomnogo Okruga [On State Support to the Communities of Indigenous Peoples of the North and the Organizations Involved in Traditional Occupations in the Territory of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area]. Vedomosti Gosudarstvennoi Dumy Yamalo-Nenetskogo Avtonomnogo Okruga 11/2, December 2005.
• Zakon YANAO [Law of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area] No. 46-ZAO. 1998. Ob Olenevodstve [On Reindeer Breeding]. Vedomosti Gosudarstvennoi Dumy Yamalo-Nenetskogo Avtonomnogo Okruga 8, October 1998.
• Zemelnyi Kodeks Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Land Code of the Russian Federation] No. 136-FZ. 2001. SZ RF 44: 4147.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/nispa-2015-0006