Food Sovereignty of the Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic Zone of Western Siberia: Response to COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This article presents the challenges facing reindeer herding as being both a profitable business and part of the traditional culture of the nomadic Indigenous peoples in the Arctic zone of Western Siberia which addresses substantial needs of the local population. Reindeer herding products are used as traditional nutrition, and as effective preventive means and remedies for adapting to the cold and geomagnetic activity in the High North. Export trends of traditional reindeer products have decreased local Indigenous peoples’ access to venison and had a negative impact on their health. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is especially urgent for the Indigenous peoples to have sufficient access to traditional food and be involved in policy decision-making to maintain this traditional business. We aim to analyze the dependencies of Indigenous peoples on the reindeer produce–exporting “food value chain” and explore how (1) the independence of reindeer herders could be increased in these export chains and (2) how provision of their products to local communities could be secured. The study takes a multidisciplinary approach based on policy and socioeconomic analyses with input from medical research. Primary sources include data collected from interviews and surveys of Indigenous peoples during expeditions to the Nyda settlement, the Nydinskaya tundra, the Tazovsky settlement, the Tazovskaya tundra, the Nakhodka tundra, the Gyda and Gydansky settlements, the Yavai-Salinskaya tundra, the Seyakha settlement, the Seyakhinskaya and Tambeyskaya tundras located along the southern coast of the Ob Bay, the northeast coast of the Yamal Peninsula, the Tazovsky and Gydansky Peninsulas, and the Shuryshkarsky district. Data were collected during the summers and winters of 2014–2020.

COVID-19, Livestock Systems and Food Security in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review of an Emerging Literature

“…Livestock Production : Pu and Zhong [ 36 ] show that restrictions on the movement between regions and social distancing measures have undermined production capacity of livestock commodities, decreased livestock production cycles and hindered producers’ access to production inputs. In particular, Kansiime et al [ 37 ] reveal that livestock producers encountered significant challenges to access feed, fuel and vaccination procedures for reindeer and slaughtering facilities. As noted by Hossain et al [ 38 ], the pandemic critically affected the dairy farming industry by increasing feed shortage, reducing accessibility to essential veterinary drugs and reducing consumer demand for dairy products.…”

“…In addition, the literature suggests that the pandemic has already and is likely to reduce households’ access to livestock commodities and push more non-poor households to fall into the category of vulnerable and food insecure population [ 67 ]. In particular, the literature points out that the effects of the pandemic on food security will be severer for women, children and other vulnerable population groups [ 37 , 52 ]. Therefore, several authors argue that the impact of COVID-19 on food security in developing countries would have broader magnitude as it affects a wider range of stages of livestock chains, multiple actors along these chains and several segments of the population [ 68 , 69 ].…”

The Impact of Climate Change on the Food (In)security of the Siberian Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic: Environmental and Health Risks

“…Oil and gas companies gave a stable tax base which was reinvested also in the rural economy including reindeer enterprises [25]. A high degree of nomadism among the Indigenous Peoples and dominance of individual reindeer husbandries (60% of reindeer belong to individual reindeer herders [71]) in YNAO became the preconditions for stronger socio-ecological and economic resilience of reindeer herding livelihood to shifting political context in 1960-2018. While in other Russian Arctic regions, there were dramatic declines in reindeer numbers associated with the years of institutional reforms wherein ownership rights changed; the reorganization of kolkhozes (enterprises with collective ownership) into sovkhozes (enterprises with state ownership).…”

“…However, this phenomenon is frequently discussed in socioeconomic studies and considered to be a clear outcome of transition processes involving traditional lifestyles [27] and the traditional Indigenous economy-for example, the transfer from a subsistence economy in Western Siberia to commodity production. During the last 10 years, rising trends in the export of traditional reindeer products have decreased local Indigenous Peoples' access to venison and had a negative impact on their health [71]. The export potential of the non-edible parts of reindeer (i.e., velvet antlers, reindeer skins, camuses) should be promoted to support the food security of the Indigenous Peoples, while government policies should focus on improving the access of the Indigenous communities to the edible and medicinal portions of the carcass.…”

“…The maintenance of a traditional diet is closely related to the maintenance of the traditional food system [69,70], which is "tightly interwoven with the culturally, socially and environmentally embedded practices of reindeer herding. Indigenous Peoples and their traditional food systems emerged in harmony with nature and contain knowhow on the sustainable use of natural resources in ways that contribute to their health" [71].…”