A CRITICAL LEGAL GEOGRAPHY OF “TERRITORY OF TRADITIONAL NATURE-USE” (TTP) FORMATION IN THE SAKHA REPUBLIC (YAKUTIA), RUSSIA by Nicholas Parlato B.A. Oberlin College, 2012 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA August 2019 ©Nicholas Parlato, 2019 i Abstract In Russia’s largest region, the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Indigenous (KMNS) leaders and communities representing five different cultural groups have succeeded in preserving traditional ways of life, and particularly nomadic reindeer husbandry, through the enormous political, social, and environmental changes of the past century. To ensure continued cultural survival, Indigenous leaders have developed a wide range of political and legal instruments, processes, and bodies within and without Russian governance structures. Key among these instruments is the “Territory of Traditional Nature-Use” (TTP), a geographically bounded legal-cultural landscape within which dozens of normative republican and federal acts, constitutional laws, and codices regulate and protect traditional land-use, socioeconomic organization, and ways of life. This thesis sheds light on the shifting legal landscape of TTPs by first, examining the formation processes of two TTP regions in the Sakha Republic, second, disentangling the complex TTP land-use regime, and third, framing TTPs in Russia’s historical legal-political development. ii Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. ii Contents ................................................................................................................................................. iii i. List of Charts and Diagrams ................................................................................................................ v ii. Glossary.............................................................................................................................................. v iii. Acknowledgement and Dedication .................................................................................................. ix 1.0 Introducing the Project ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Context ......................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 Russian Governance of Siberia.............................................................................................. 2 1.1.2 Russian Governance of Yakutia ............................................................................................ 6 1.1.3 What is a Territory of Traditional Nature-Use (ttp vs. TTP)? ............................................... 8 1.2 Theoretical Frameworks ............................................................................................................. 10 1.2.1 Critical Legal Geography .................................................................................................... 12 1.2.2 Russia’s Legal Legacies ...................................................................................................... 16 1.2.3 Socialist Property and Indigenous Proletarians ................................................................... 17 1.2.5 Shock Therapy and the 1990’s ............................................................................................ 19 1.2.6 Applying Critical Legal Geography to Contemporary Russia ............................................ 20 1.3 Methodologies ............................................................................................................................ 21 1.3.1 Planning for the Field .......................................................................................................... 22 1.3.2 Interviewees ......................................................................................................................... 22 1.3.3 Methods and Materials ........................................................................................................ 23 1.4 Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................................................ 25 2.0 The Two Eras of TTPs ................................................................................................................... 28 2.1 TTP Laws, OOPTs, and OOTs ................................................................................................... 29 2.1.1 “Specially-Protected Nature Territories” (OOPTs) ............................................................. 30 2.1.2 “Specially-Protected Territories” (OOTs) ........................................................................... 31 2.2 Bellet Evenk National Nasleg and the Route to Becoming a TTP ............................................. 32 2.2.1 Post-Soviet Bellet Nasleg .................................................................................................... 32 2.2.2 BENN and TTP Status ......................................................................................................... 35 2.2.3 Industrial Activity in BENN ................................................................................................ 38 2.2.4 Community Control ............................................................................................................. 41 2.3 Anami National Nasleg, the Far East Hectare, and the Mass Creation of TTPs ........................ 43 2.3.1 A Note on Fieldwork ........................................................................................................... 43 2.3.2 ANN, Municipal Formation, and TTP Status ...................................................................... 44 2.3.3 The Far East Hectare Program............................................................................................. 45 iii 2.4 BENN, ANN, and Local Empowerment .................................................................................... 47 3.0 The TTP Legal Assemblage across Four Spheres of Relationships ............................................... 53 3.1 How to Approach a TTP............................................................................................................. 54 3.2 KMNS and Land ........................................................................................................................ 58 3.2.1 Reindeer and Pastures .......................................................................................................... 59 3.2.2 Wild Animals and Hunting Grounds ................................................................................... 62 3.2.3 Fish and Fishing Areas ........................................................................................................ 65 3.2.4 Timber and Forest Plots ....................................................................................................... 66 3.3 KMNS, Obshchinas, and Local Self-Governance ...................................................................... 67 3.3.1 The Nasleg Administration .................................................................................................. 68 3.3.2 Obshchinas .......................................................................................................................... 71 3.3.3 Overlapping Jurisdictions .................................................................................................... 73 3.4 KMNS and Government ............................................................................................................. 73 3.4.1 Local/Muncipal Administrations ......................................................................................... 74 3.4.2 Republican Government ...................................................................................................... 76 3.4.3 Federal Government ............................................................................................................ 82 3.5 KMNS Relationship with Industry ............................................................................................. 85 3.5.1 Formal Aspects of KMNS-Corporate Relations .................................................................. 87 3.5.2 Informal Aspects of KMNS-Corporate Relationship .......................................................... 90 4.0 TTPs, Legal Cultures, and Legal Consciousness ........................................................................... 95 4.1 How TTPs address legal nihilism ............................................................................................... 96 4.2 TTPs and Paternalism ............................................................................................................... 100 4.3 KMNS Rights and the Politics of Recognition ......................................................................... 106 4.5 The AKMNS Initiative to Develop KMNS Legal Consciousness on TTPs ............................. 113 4.5.1 Creating New Expectations ............................................................................................... 114 4.5.2 Procedural Directions & Clarifying of Law ...................................................................... 115 4.5.3 Information Sharing ..........................................................................................................