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

Elena Bogdanova, Sergei Andronov, Ildiko Asztalos Morell, Kamrul Hossain, Dele Raheem, Praskovia Filant and Andrey Lobanov
Additional contact information
Elena Bogdanova: Department of Economics and Management, Northern Arctic Federal University, 164500 Arkhangelsk, Russia
Sergei Andronov: National Medical Research Center for Rehabilitation and Balneology, Ministry of Health of the Russia, 121099 Moscow, Russia
Ildiko Asztalos Morell: Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden
Kamrul Hossain: Northern Institute of Environmental and Minority Law, Arctic Center of the University of Lapland, 96101 Rovaniemi, Finland
Dele Raheem: Northern Institute of Environmental and Minority Law, Arctic Center of the University of Lapland, 96101 Rovaniemi, Finland
Praskovia Filant: Association of Reindeer Herders in YNAO, 629000 Salekhard, Russia
Andrey Lobanov: National Medical Research Center for Rehabilitation and Balneology, Ministry of Health of the Russia, 121099 Moscow, Russia

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 20, 1-17

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.

Keywords: food sovereignty; reindeer herding; food value chain; Indigenous peoples; COVID-19 pandemic; the Arctic; Western Siberia; Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/20/7570/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/20/7570/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:20:p:7570-:d:430748

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().