Sustainability and Resilience of Indigenous Siberian Communities under the Impact of Transportation Infrastructure Transformation

Maria Kuklina, Antonina Savvinova, Viktoria Filippova, Natalia Krasnoshtanova, Viktor Bogdanov, Alla Fedorova, Dmitrii Kobylkin, Andrey Trufanov and Zolzaya Dashdorj
Additional contact information
Maria Kuklina: Institute of High Technology, Irkutsk National Research Technical University, 83, Lermontova Street, 664074 Irkutsk, Russia
Antonina Savvinova: Laboratory of Electronic Cartographic Systems, M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, 48 Kulakovsky Street, 677000 Yakutsk, Russia
Viktoria Filippova: The Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North SB RAS, 1, Petrovskogo Street, 677027 Yakutsk, Russia
Natalia Krasnoshtanova: Laboratory of Theoretical Geography, V B Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS, 1, Ulan-Batorskaya Street, 664033 Irkutsk, Russia
Viktor Bogdanov: Laboratory of Cartography, V B Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS, 1, Ulan-Batorskaya Street, 664033 Irkutsk, Russia
Alla Fedorova: Laboratory of Electronic Cartographic Systems, M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, 48 Kulakovsky Street, 677000 Yakutsk, Russia
Dmitrii Kobylkin: Laboratory of Geomorphology, V B Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS, 1, Ulan-Batorskaya Street, 664033 Irkutsk, Russia
Andrey Trufanov: Institute of Information Technology and Data Science, Irkutsk National Research Technical University, 83, Lermontova Street, 664074 Irkutsk, Russia
Zolzaya Dashdorj: Department of Software Engineering and Computer Science, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, 8th khoroo, Baga toiruu 34, Sukhbaatar District, Ulaanbaatar 14191, Mongolia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-19

Abstract: Transport provision in remote territories is one of the most important factors in maintaining the sustainability of socio-economic and ecological systems. Indigenous peoples of Siberia have always been mobile using diverse traditional ways across the taiga. During the Soviet period, the transition to settled life, along with technological development and the emergence of new modes of transport, such as off-road cars, snowmobiles, and motor boats, significantly affected the level of population mobility, including remote areas where people are engaged in traditional nature management. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were significant changes and reductions in the subsidies of transportation systems for remote terrains that made them isolated. Transport connectivity has been realized through rare plane flights (once a month or less) or by cars on dirt roads (actually off-road) that take several days of travel. Siberian territories rich with natural resources, low population density, and weak infrastructure might be attractive for mining companies. Being difficult to access not only for the local population, but also for industrial companies, the territories imply the allocation of a significant share of road construction and transport costs in the cost items of miners and processors. The problems of sustainability and resilience of the indigenous peoples of Siberia require special attention when restructuring transport communications, but they have practically not been studied before. Methods of in-depth and group interviews with local residents were used. Based on comparative geographic and statistical analysis and generalization of data, network and problem approaches applied for various sources and field materials (including in-depth and group interviews), the factors of sustainability and resilience, which the indigenous communities of three remote Siberian territories pin their hopes on in the context of the transformation of transportation infrastructure, have been identified. If geographic remoteness remains an unchanged fact, the expansion of desired transport accessibility (mainly due to investments by industrial companies) is associated by locals with the possibility of additional income related to provision of services, the emergence of new types of employment of the population that have not been observed before, and the implementation of new transport modes to support traditional activities.

Keywords: remote territories; transportation infrastructure; Siberia; indigenous communities; sustainable development; traditional activities; mining (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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