Oil industry and reindeer herders signed declaration of coexistence
Representatives of research, reindeer herding, local authorities and the oil industry have signed a “declaration of coexistence” in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
The declaration on relations between reindeer nomads and the oil and gas industry was arranged for within the four-year research project ENSINOR, an initiative by the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, with Nenets reindeer herders. An international workshop in December 2007 had brought together the above mentioned stakeholder groups, which contributed to the declaration. We acknowledge that fruitful coexistence of indigenous livelihoods and oil and gas extraction is the expressed goal among all three interested sides in reindeer herding, industry and the state administration, the declaration reads. This declaration is one of several products of the research project ENSINOR (Environmental and Social Impacts of Industrialization in Northern Russia), which lasted 48 months and ran from January 2004 through December 2007.
