In the Country of Volcanoes

Russia INDIGENOUS PEOPLES In the Country of Volcanoes

For the indigenous peoples of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the ‘fi sh province’ of the Russian Federation, fi ghting for their rights to access fi shing resources is crucial

here are 40 communities of the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. indigenous peoples living in Kamchatka is called ‘the country of TRussia who are labelled under volcanoes’, because the peninsula Russian law as “Indigenous small- is located in the seismic zone. numbered peoples of the North, Kamchatka is also the ‘fish province’ Siberia and the Far East of the of Russia as it is well known for the Russian Federation”. This is a wealth of its fish and other aquatic collective term for peoples with a bio-resources. Kamchatka is one of population of fewer than 50,000 the regions of the Russian Federation each, who inhabit two-thirds of with a highly developed fishing the Russian territory in the Arctic industry. The fishing industry and Asian parts of the country. dominates the Kamchatka’s economy. The number of indigenous peoples The Okhotsk, Bering and Pacific coastal of the Russian North is less than waters of the Kamchatka Peninsula 8 belong to the most productive fishingfi zones of the world’s oceans. TheT share of the Kamchatka region in The indigenous peoples of Russia remain among the theth total fish harvest of the Russian poorest of the population... FarF East is more than 32 per cent anda comprises about 21 per cent ofo the total fish harvest of the RussianR Federation. Kamchatka’s fish-processingfi industry produces 0.20 2 perper cecentnt ooff ththee RuRussianssian popopulationpulation abouta 700,000 tonnes of fish and in total (approximately 250,000 to fish products annually. 300,000). Their traditional livelihood The main rivers of the peninsula is based on fishing, hunting, reindeer are renowned for their abundance of husbandry and gathering. More than salmon. The local indigenous peoples two-thirds of them continue to live depend on hunting, reindeer herding in rural areas where these activities and gathering but, historically, are still indispensable sources of food fishing has played a key role in their and income. Due to their traditional traditional sources of livelihood. livelihoods, most of the indigenous Their most important occupation peoples of the Russian North, during the summer is salmon fishing. especially those who preserve a nomadic way of life, need much Local stakeholders more territory for subsistence than At the same time, the fishing industry other populations of the country. is the basis of the general local The indigenous peoples of Russia economy and is one of the main remain among the poorest of the contributors to the regional budget. population in terms of social and Thus, access to fishing grounds and economic development, as well as life fish quotas is a crucially important expectancy, which is far below the issue for all local stakeholders, including national average. the government, businesses and The Kamchatka Peninsula, located indigenous peoples. The indigenous This article is by Dmitry Berezhkov in the northeast of Eurasia, is washed communities have become unwilling ([email protected]), of Arctic Consult, Tromsø, Norway by the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk, competitors with the big fishing

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 74 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES companies since they both depend on where the Itelmens form a majority the same resources. Often the of the population—around 300. indigenous rights to fishing resources The Itelmens’ language is fast in Kamchatka are violated by the disappearing and there are only a government or commercial companies few alive who can speak Itelmen. who grab the traditional indigenous Today the main language of peoples’ fishing grounds, practise an communication is Russian. inequitable distribution of fishing During the Soviet era, the main quotas which favours big business, population of Kovran village worked and develop unfair legislation that in the local state fishing enterprise restricts the indigenous peoples’ rights (kolkhoz) which served the public on fishing. needs of the Soviet state, drawing Consider the case of the Itelmen on the Itelmens’ traditional fishing community of Kovran, which is located grounds and tools. As compensation, in the northwest of the Kamchatka the state provided salaries, education Peninsula on the coast of the Sea of and other state services for the local Okhotsk. The Itelmens are the most population. After the disintegration ancient people in Kamchatka. The of the Soviet Union, the economy oldest settlements discovered by crashed, the Itelmens’ fishing archaeologists show that Itelmens enterprises were privatized and they have been living in Kamchatka for had to learn to survive without any about 15,000 years. Since ancient support from the state. times the main occupation of the At the start of the 1990s, the local Itelmens has been salmon and smelt people decided to organize their fishing in the Kamchatka rivers, own fisheries enterprise and fish for and fish has traditionally been a themselves on their traditional fishing 9 year-round source of nutrition. grounds on the Kovran river. They During the summer, the Itelmens delivered their catch to the processing used to catch and dry the fish, and factories in the neighboring Ust- sour it in special pits for the long Khayrusovo village. They got back half winter ahead. For smelt fishing, their catch as frozen fish, which they they would use devices that trap the then sold to commercial ships around fish without human intervention. the Kamchatka coast. The soured fish was fed to the dogs The Itelmens also started to restore which have historically been the only their ancient traditional cultural form of local transportation. The ceremonies like the Celebration of Itelmens also hunted seals along the the First Fish or the Alkhalalalay seashore and bears in the forests. holiday, which attracted researchers, Their main holidays were during and tourists. In 1998 the community the spring celebrations when the OLEG ZAPOROTSKY first salmon appeared in the rivers, followed, in the fall, by the great Alhalalalay holiday dedicated to giving thanks to the Earth for its gifts. The Itelmens have lived across the whole territory of the Kamchatka Peninsula, from the north to the south. Due to conflicts, diseases and assimilation into the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, the Itelmens’ population declined dramatically over time. Today there are only a small number of Itelmens. Only 3,000 Itelmens live in Kamchatka today. Kovran village, which was a centre for the forcible resettlement of Kovran village ﬁ shers setting up Zapor, the traditional indigenous indigenous population in the Soviet ﬁ shing tool for Kamchatka in Kovran river regime, is the only community

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teamed up with the regional from ruling on land issues, which it government to establish a traditional does not cover. territory, called “Thsanom”, which Another stroke of misfortune hit became the first official territory in the Itelmen community later when Russia specially designed for the it lost the official right to fish in the development of indigenous peoples’ Kovran river. Since the river is not traditional economy, culture and rich in salmon, for many years the governance. Based on that experience, big commercial fishing companies the Federal Government of Russia showed no interest in fishing there. later developed the special federal But following the rise of the price framework law “On territories of of smelt fish, big business started to traditional nature use of small- pay attention to the river and in 2003 numbered indigenous peoples of the authorities decided to open up the Russian North, Siberia and the the river to commercial fishing. After Far East” years of fighting for commercial The community, in co-operation tenders, in 2008 the local community with the regional government and lost the right to fish in the river as environmental NGOs, began to the fishing tender was won by a large develop their own plans for the local commercial fishing company. Once economy and governance of Kovran, the commercial exploitation of the including establishing a network of Kovran river began, the stocks of information centres, educational smelt fish started decreasing programmes, and security posts to dramatically. The Itelmens now fight illegal fishing. have only the right to fish for food Soon dry salted smelt fish became on the seashore far away from their 10 one of the most popular snacks in own village. Their native river Russia. Prices began to rise and in now belongs to big business. The 1999 the community decided to build indigenous community has lost the its own fish factory in Kovran village right to sell fish and will be able to to increase incomes. The regional catch it only for their own governor supported the idea and consumption. the community even received some Today most of the male population financial support from the state to of the village have no official jobs, buy the necessary equipment to as commercial companies prefer to freeze the fish. The case of the hire fishermen from other regions. Kovran community and the Thsanom Alcoholism is rampant and the territory has since been looked up suicide rate in Kovran is several times to as an example of the sustainable higher than the Russian average. development of indigenous peoples New amendments to the Russian in Russia. federal law on fishery in 2008 However, in 2001 a new governor, deprived the indigenous communities who was a geologist and the head of of their right to access the fishing the largest regional gold mining grounds and required them to submit company, using a loophole in the their bids as commercial tenders. federal legislation, rescinded the A large number of indigenous creation of the Thsanom territory, communities across the Russian thereby undermining the self- North, Siberia and the Far East have governance of the indigenous lost their fishing grounds because of community of Kovran. The community this change. Many fishing grounds appealed to the courts and after previously designated for indigenous several levels of litigation, in 2003 peoples were re-classified as industrial the European Court of Human Rights fishing grounds and leased to third ordered the restoration of the parties through commercial tenders. Thsanom territory and the re-establishment of the territorial Populated territories self-governance of the Itelmen The Itelmens, who live in the most community. But procedural populated and most assimilated technicalities prevented the court territories of the Kamchatka Peninsula,

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 74 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES face additional challenges in pursuing indigenous peoples and ‘authorized fishing. In 2009 a new federal users’ of natural resources (namely, governmental decree was adopted the commercial companies that won that delineated the places of living access to the fishing grounds on and traditional nature use of the commercial tenders) who are the main indigenous small-numbered peoples contributors to the regional economy of the Russian Federation. According and budget. Another argument put to the decree, only on territories forward was that the indigenous included in the list can indigenous peoples in the southern districts peoples enjoy rights to their amount to less than 1 per cent of the traditional livelihood and lifestyle. total population. The companies also There are some indigenous regions pointed out that these territories are in Russia that have not been included rich in oil and are important for into the federal list. An example is the the security of the state, and so Murmansk region where only some including them in the list could municipalities are included in the list. “encourage separatism among Sami who live in these municipalities indigenous peoples” and could be have the right to fish, while other “a threat to the energy security of Sami who live in municipalities the region”. elsewhere have no such right. To date, however, there has been According to the census of 2010, no attempt to exclude the southern the total indigenous population territories from the list as the of Kamchatka is 14,368 people authorities are afraid of massive (4.5 per cent of the total Kamchatka protests by the indigenous population. population). The federal government But they have officially announced decree of 2009 marked the whole that a decision will be taken by 11 territory of Kamchatka as a place the end of 2016. The indigenous for traditional living and traditional communities of Kamchatka are nature use of indigenous peoples, understandably fearful of a negative including those in the most populated decision, especially considering that For more southern districts. in the recent past the Russian That was a great victory for Federation has adopted several laws bit.ly/1rqEkzg Kamchatka’s indigenous movement, that prohibit protest actions. Indigenous Peoples’ Experiences which has been fighting for this goal The current legislation on self- and Perspectives on the New for 20 years, ever since the fall of the governance and access to resources International Standards in Soviet Union. Soviet officialdom did and lands is ineffective and not the ﬁ eld of Human Rights and not consider the southern districts backed by the court system. Adding Corporations of Kamchatka as territories where to the constraint are the restrictive site.uit.no/urfolksforum/fdcip-2014- indigenous peoples live as these changes to the legislation on resources indigenous-movement-in-russia/ districts are the most assimilated and human rights legislation that New Political Realities for the areas of the Kamchatka region. Today, have crept in over the last year. Indigenous Movement in Russia however, about a third of the total Indigenous communities of the indigenous population can be found Kamchatka region can be effectively base.garant.ru/195535/ there. The 2009 federal government integrated into the business chains Russian Federation Government decree confirmed the validity of as the primary fishing links in remote Decree of May 8, 2009 N 631-r the indigenous peoples’ claims on regions—provided the legislation About Approval of the List of access to the fishery resources in the guarantees the communities’ rights Places of Traditional Residence southern Kamchatka districts. to access the fishing resources. and Traditional Economic Under pressure from the big If such rights are guaranteed, the Activities of Indigenous fishing commercial companies, the communities can not only contribute Minorities of the Russian Kamchatka authorities organized to the fishing business but also Federation and the List of Types an official petition to the federal develop activities to support of their Traditional Economic government requesting a change themselves to eradicate poverty and Activities (as Amended) in the federal decree to exclude the social maladies. southern Kamchatka districts from the federal list, arguing that the decision of the federal government would lead to conflicts between the

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