Reindeer Blog

(By Luke Harding, The Guardian) For 1,000 years the indigenous Nenets people have herded their reindeer along the Yamal peninsula. But their survival in this remote region of north-west Siberia is under serious threat from climate change as Russia’s ancient permafrost melts. t is one of the world’s last great wildernesses, a 435-mile long peninsula [...]

By Amie Ferris-Rotman,  67 N LATITUDE, 71 E LONGITUDE, Russia, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The Nenets tribespeople of Russia’s frozen Yamal peninsula have survived the age of the Tsars, the Bolshevik revolution and the chaotic 1990s, but now confront their biggest challenge — under their fur-bundled feet is enough gas to heat the world for [...]

(Source: BarentsObserver) Russian energy major Gazprom will postpone the launch of the Bovanenkovo field in Yamal until 2012, a high-ranking company representative confirmed today. Aleksandr Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the company’s Management Committee today said that the launch of the field will be postponed from 2011 as originally planned to 2012. The reason is the [...]

  (Source: BarentsObserver) Gazprom’s construction of the 1100 km long pipeline between the Bovanenkovo field in Yamal to Ukhta in the Komi Republic is violating environmental legislation, local environmentalists say. The critics are joined by several company employees, who say that the pipeline construction is harming the Arctic nature in the area, Regnum reports. Garbage is dumped [...]

Yuri Khudi, and Kirill Seretetto during microsurgery on Lyuba, a baby mammoth discovered on the bank of a remote Siberian river in May 2007. Pic© Pierre Stine.  Over a year ago, the discovery of a baby mammoth, that has since been named Lyuba (after the wife of the herder that first found the remains), in [...]

  The construction of the Obskaya-Bovanenkovo railway line to the Bovanenkovo gas field in the Yamal Peninsula is proceeding rapidly. The railway will facilitate the construction of the field, the biggest in the Yamal peninsula, which is also the home of the worlds largest area of reindeer husbandry. The railway is to be completed and connected with the [...]

«Я не вижу альтернативы ЯНАО, который дает 87% российского и 20% мирового газа, и на 50 лет вперед Ямал будет определять развитие газовой промышленности, как нашей страны, так и мира в целом» Just in case you were in any doubt that Gazprom, its affiliates and other Russian oil and gas folks are prioritising the Yamal Peninsula, home to the largest [...]

The story from Tyumenskaya News posted in the Reindeer Blog yesterday reflects an earlier “oil and gas and reindeer and good news” story that appeared in Rosbalt Nord a few weeks ago entitled Ямальские газовики подарят оленям комфорт / Yamal gas industry gives comfort to reindeer. The article quoted Sergei Khudi (who attended the EALAT [...]

Парламентская газета “Тюменские известия”. Осенью в ЯНАО пройдет заседание координационного совета ассоциации коренных малочисленных народов Севера «Ямал — потомкам!». Его главным вопросом станет разработка концепции развития этнического населения региона на ближайшие десять лет. Предыдущая стратегия жизни тундровиков была рассчитана на такой же срок. Окружная Дума утвердила ее в 2000 году. Время прошло быстро. И не [...]

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 people [...]