Reindeer Blog

So said Toomas Ilves, the President of Estonia, as he marched his delegation out of last weeks Finno Ugric Congress in Khanty Mansisk. Ilves even called for the European Union to become engaged in protecting Finno Ugric languages. These remarks were designed to irritate Russia, no doubt, as more than 2 million Finno Ugrian [...]

(Pic - Svein Mathiesen, NAO) У оленеводов свои проблемы, решение которых, к сожалению, может затянуться на неопределенный срок, в связи с передачей полномочий от НАО к АО и реорганизацией управлений по делам малочисленных народов и сельского хозяйства окружной Администрации.
О том, что жизнь людей, ведущих традиционный для НАО образ жизни (оленеводов, охотников и рыбаков), во многом [...]

(Source - The Kremlin) Many Finno Ugric Peoples are reindeer herders - Sami, Komi, Khanty, Finns, Nenets, to name a few. While reindeer were not on the agenda at last weeks Finno Ugric Peoples congress in Khanty Mansisk last week, reindeer were not too far away..as seen in this picture with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and [...]

(Picture / story Russia Today 21042008)Reindeer breeding accounts for 90% of the agriculture in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District in northern Russia. The industry’s export markets include Germany, Italy, Greece and Latvia. But producers are facing logistics problems trying to expand.Reindeer have been the main source of income for the Nenets people for centuries. There are [...]

(ROSBALT NORD) САЛЕХАРД, 21 апреля. Освоение Бованенковского месторождения (Ямало-Ненецкий автономный округ) согласовано с коренным населением, сообщает ИА «Север-Пресс».
«Вторжение промышленности в зону хозяйствования коренного населения происходит крайне осторожно и цивилизованно, — заявил заместитель генерального директора компании «Газпром добыча Надым» Игорь Морозов. — Все решения по строительству инфраструктуры и трубопроводов в районе Бованенково принимаются только после детального обсуждения с коренным населением и прохождения соответствующих согласований и экспертиз в местных администрациях».
(Operator Gazprom has [...]

According to a report in the Barents Observer and Rosbalt Nord, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug proposes to build a new port terminal in Indiga for exports of oil shipments. This is a region of reindeer husbandry for Nenets and Komi herders and it should be remembered that the establishment of an oil terminal in Varandei led to [...]

A recent story from the ITAR-TASS newswire reminds one of the everyday dangers that reindeer herders face in Russia, and of course elsewhere, travelling as they do in remote and hazardous regions throughout the Arctic.
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, April 14 (Itar-Tass) - The body of one of five missing reindeer herders was found under snow debris in Kolyma’s [...]

(Picture - Miriam Elder, From the Moscow Times, 11042008) NARYAN-MAR, Nenets Autonomous District — When an airplane carrying LUKoil workers crashed in the far north of this Arctic region three years ago, killing 29 of 52 people on board, many blamed the weather.
When, one year later, in March 2006, a helicopter carrying victims’ relatives to a [...]

(From Arctic Sounder, by TAMAR BEN-YOSEF, April 11, 2008 at 11:19AM AKST The struggle by Alaska’s Inupiat to protect their culture in face of resource development has drawn the attention of indigenous leaders in Russia facing near-identical challenges.
A delegation of four Russian indigenous leaders from the Sakha Republic showed up in Barrow and Nuiqsut last [...]

The Russian veterinary service has registered rabies in a group of 46 reindeers which suddenly died this month in a farm in the Komi Republic. According to Rosbaltnord.ru, the 46 animals which died in the “Severny” farm in Usinsk, the Komi Republic, all had rabies. The animals were all part of a bigger herd, which [...]