Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic: Perspectives from the Barents Area

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Chapter 8 · A resilien cepproac h to adaptat ion act

Box 8.1 Case study: Resilience of social-ecological systems of reindeer-herding nomads in northwestern Russia Forbes (2013) analyzed the resilience of social-ecological systems of reindeer-herding nomads in the Nenets AutonomousOkrug (NAO) and theneighboringYamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO), two regions of northwestern Russia in the Barents Sea region. These communities have remained relatively resilient in the face of a changing climate and land loss due to oil and gas infrastructures. Using the framework presented in Table 8.3 to analyze this research, clear and strong distinctions are apparent between factors related to livelihood, knowledge, and self-organization. Climate change has caused many changes in the NAO and YNAO, including later first-freeze in autumn, earlier breakup of ice cover in spring,andmore rain-on-snow events in winter. Rain-on-snow events reduce the amount of accessible pasture to reindeer.However,nomads have shownmore concern about oil and gas infrastructure than about changes in climate. Oil and gas fields have an immediate effect in limiting access to pastures and fishing resources as well as restricting the free movement of animals,changes to which the nomads are much more vulnerable. Owing to their pastoral lifestyle, the social- ecological systemof reindeer-herding nomads is robust against temporal variation (such as changes in seasonal climate) but is extremely vulnerable to spatial changes (such as changes in access).For example,if a large rain-on-snow event covers some pastures, nomads can normally lead their herds elsewhere. But if there are physical barriers such as oil pipelines, the adaptive capacity of the herd is significantly reduced. To maintain their sustainable livelihoods, an extensive amount of knowledge about animal population ecology is transferred through the generations. In order to maintain the fish population, the nomads are considered in their fishing methods; they neither overfish nor underfish the population (underfishing could cause a population boom of fish that can damage the lake ecosystem).The nomads also only deal with predators or pests when they present a significant problem – for example, it is natural for the nomads to allow a wolf pack to take the occasional reindeer, but the nomads will kill a wolf that goes on a rampage and kills many reindeer. Most importantly, the nomads are knowledgeable about herd demographics and have agency to control it. They can control the number of breeding females and castrated males, which then controls the rate of growth of their herds. This understanding of population dynamics is complemented by a cultural spirit of stewardship. School-age children (6 to 16 years old) of nomadic families are required to attend boarding school for most of the year and so are prevented from learning traditional knowledge during that period. However, in the YNAO especially, young people have continued to show interest in returning to and staying on the tundra as nomadic herders. The knowledge necessary to survive on the tundra cannot be learned at school and must be acquired during periods of intensive mentoring on the tundra.

These nomadic communities have been affected by contact with Soviet-era policy, showing cross-scale influences on self-organization. Most significantly, Soviet policy forced upon the nomads sedentarization (transitioning from a nomadic society to a lifestyle that remains in one place permanently) and collectivization (consolidation of individual landholdings, livestock, labor, and other assets into collective farms). These policies became more established in the NAO than the YNAO because of the actions of local Soviet bureaucrats. In theYNAO, the local Soviet bureaucrats conformed to Soviet policy on paper, but allowed the YNAO nomadic communities to maintain a traditional social organization and manage their herds according to their own timetables. Therefore, the nomads of the YNAO seem to be more resilient than those of the NAO, where there was a greater loss of tradition and recruitment of youth because of the stricter enforcement of Soviet collectivization of herds and sedentarization. These reindeer-herding communities have remained resilient because of the diversity within their livelihoods (e.g. dependence on many types of animal, ability to break up into smaller herds) as well as their knowledge of sustainable animal population management. Temporal variability related to climate change has also proved little problem, with the herders far more affected by the spatial constraints created by oil and gas infrastructure. Forbes (2013) reported that herders remain confident in their abilities to manage the reindeer as long as they retain unfettered access to pastures and fish stocks remain viable and as long as they are allowed to use their own judgment and agency when it comes to day-to-day herding decisions.

Because the vast open tundra has been broken up by new oil and gas developments, collectively owned reindeer herds have begun to shift to smaller privately-owned reindeer herds. Smaller herds are more flexible and have an advantage in smaller territories and can migrate more quickly and easily when pastures are found inaccessible.However,the interests of private herd managers are“ poorly represented in development decisions since most of them do not belong to a registered land- using entity ”. In an attempt to mitigate this, private herds have self-organized in the obschchina movement, where an obshchina is“ a registered union of private herders who wish to sell produce jointly ,” and/or“ a social unit that helps strengthen the collectivity of an indigenous community when it…seeks to claim land against another actor .” Forbes believes that if the collective units continue to splinter into smaller, privately managed herds, the increase in heterogeneity is likely to facilitate resilience (all direct quotes from Forbes, 2013). The nomadic peoples of the NAO andYNAO primarily relate their identity to herding reindeer, but reindeer are not their only source of livelihood. Diversity within their livelihood is simultaneously a factor of resilience but also exposes them to a wider range of impacts. Fish is a critical source of food for the nomads in summer when they do not slaughter reindeer, and they have sustainably fished for generations. However, the recent influx of temporary workers at oil and gas sites (who fish wastefully in the eyes of the nomads) are decreasing the availability of fish. Small game, such as geese, is another source of food for the nomads. The annual goose hunt in spring is also an important socio-cultural event as it enables sedentarized people to rejoin their relatives on the tundra.