Conflict or Compromise?
Traditional natural resource use and oil exploitation
in northeastern Sakhalin/Noglikskii district
Emma Wilson
Natural
Resources
The off-shore oil and
gas developments clearly pose a threat to the marine resources of the
Sakhalin shelf, to the coastal waters, the bays, wetlands, reindeer
pastures and salmon spawning grounds that make up the delicate human
and natural ecosystem of the north-eastern coastal region. An oil slick
will be catastrophic both for the natural environment and the humans
that depend on it. The Native minorities are both hopeful and
suspicious of the oil developments, hoping for new job opportunities,
yet fearing the final destruction of their environment - the last
fishing grounds and reindeer pastures - and the disappearance of their
culture and livelihoods.
Molikpaq has taken on mythical significance in
the eyes of local people. It has become the symbol of some
indeterminate cataclysmic change that is gradually occurring in the
natural environment. Reindeer herders herd their deer on the pastures
close to Piltun'skii and Astokhskii bays. Molikpaq can be seen from the
shore when the mists rise. Since seismic testing began in that region,
reindeer herders claim that the local environmental conditions began
noticeably to change. There are fewer seals in the sea. One herder
claims to have seen three dead seals along one stretch of coastline
where usually no dead seals are washed up. Another notes that some of
the marine birds they hunt are starting to eat land-based insects
instead of plankton from the sea (evidenced by the stomach contents).*7
Local (indigenous and non-indigenous) people who fish also report
increasing numbers of poisoned fish being washed up on the shore. Fish
sometimes smells of oil or phenols when it is caught, but it is still
eaten out of necessity. Recently a huge number of dead herring were
washed up on the shores of Piltun bay, reportedly poisoned by DDT.*8
While this is
clearly not related solely to the appearance of Molikpaq, the platform
remains a folk-symbol of accelerating environmental degradation. There
are other factors, including the huge forest fires of 1989 and 1998; a
reported phenol leak into the Amur river last year; leaks from waste
dumps along the shoreline. The phenomena could also relate to global
climate change. The problem is that no-one really knows the damage
caused so far by the exploratory drilling, seismic testing, erection of
Molikpaq and its subsequent work. There are no independent monitoring
programmes, and control of environmental conditions relating to
Sakhalin I and II is out of the hands of both local regulatory organs
and the local populations. Local people cannot afford to attract
specialists to carry out independent scientific assessments, which are
urgently needed, especially if people are to continue eating
contaminated fish.
The bureaucrats (chinovniki) who
should be defending the interests of people locally are highly
dependent on decisions made at the regional level. The Noglikskii
district committee of ecology and fisheries inspectorate are not
allowed onto Molikpaq, as control is entirely at the regional level
(mostly in the hands of Sakhalin regional committee of ecology). When
asked whether they object to the threats posed by the off-shore oil
developments, the answer provided by local regulators is that they
might be concerned, but their seniors in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk are
responsible for decision making. At the same time, one
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk official is famously quoted as saying: "We are the
real enemies of nature. We are the ones who sign the papers."*9
Approvals and permissions are often signed against the better judgement
of the official who signs them, but under pressure from "higher
powers." The Moscow-based environmental law NGO "Ecojuris" advocates
public legal control of regulatory organs that do not carry out their
responsibility to the public for whatever reason, be this fear of
losing their jobs, or pressure from superiors or powerful political and
economic interests. With a strong "civil society" chinovniki
would fear the public in the same way.
Two
projects are currently being planned which could provide an opportunity
for more active public participation and control. Sakhalin I and II are
planning pipelines to cut across some of the last remaining summer
reindeer pastures. The proposed Sakhalin I project pipeline and
preliminary processing plant (Exxon), cuts across the spawning river
Evai and important wetlands for migrating birds. It is an area for
hunting, fishing and reindeer herding, and lies just south of the
wildlife preserve "Olenii (Deer)." The proposed Sakhalin II pipeline
(SEIC) cuts straight through this wildlife preserve further north,
close to reindeer calving grounds. The land here is marshy and highly
sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance. Where the land is dry, the soil
is very sandy, and construction work tends to leave gaping scars in the
earth that erode rather than healing. It is unlikely that any pipeline
construction and use will take place in these areas without
considerable environmental disturbance and pollution.
The Sakhalin II pipeline route received
preliminary approval without direct consultation with local herders.
However, on the basis of a survey of local land use and populations
SEIC is now considering bringing their pipeline on to the land further
down the shoreline away from the reindeer pastures. The Sakhalin I
proposal has not yet received preliminary approval and Exxon has now
asked the Sakhalin Association of Northern Native Minorities (ANNM) to
research the opinions of local indigenous populations to their proposed
construction project. This move on the part of Exxon is related to the
agreement recently signed between the governor and the AMMN at a
seminar (28-29 May 1999), which includes an assurance that the local
indigenous populations will be consulted on all industrial projects
taking place on their lands.
Once the pipelines
have received preliminary approval they pass on to the stage of
environmental expert review, which includes compulsory public hearings.
However, the reindeer herders claim they are too busy tending their
deer and resolving their own problems to attend hearings and seminars,
even if they are held in the closest village (Val), which is over an
hour away by heavy Jeep if the roads are dry. This could in reality be
more of an excuse not to take part in such meetings, where they feel
uncomfortable, or it could be due to a lack of belief in the
effectiveness of standing up at such a meeting to defend one's own
interests. The consultation process for the Sakhalin I pipeline
proposal could provide an opportunity for developing a model of
consultation that reaches the broadest possible range of local
residents.
The Okhotsk sea itself provides half of the
total supply of fish and other marine resources to the Russian
Federation and is vital to the Sakhalin regional economy. While fishing
does not bring a significant amount into the Noglikskii district budget
in the form of taxes, some local people are regularly employed in the
fishing industry, local entrepreneurs are increasingly seeking to
develop private fishing ventures, while more and more local residents
are now turning to fishing simply for subsistence and survival. This
refers to both indigenous and non-indigenous residents.
Many of the rivers
of Noglikskii district are spawning rivers, and are still relatively
rich in salmon, including the Red Book taimen' although
logging in the upper reaches and intensive poaching is likely to
destroy stocks in future years. Fishing takes place on the rivers, in
the river estuaries, along the coastline, and further out to sea. The
"Vostok" collective fishing enterprise (rybolovetskii kolkhoz)
fishes in Pil'tunskii, Chaivinskii, Nabil'skii and Nyiskii bays. Other
areas of water are allocated to various fishing enterprises including
indigenous "clan enterprises" or rodovye khoziaistva (see
below). Fishing boats registered elsewhere on the island and
international vessels are allowed to fish further from the shore, or
are involved in poaching.
The multinational oil companies are unsure how
to compensate the fishing industry (such payments are made in advance
in Russia). Compensation for damage to the fisheries from development
of the Sakhalin II project was estimated in the initial project plans
(TEO) as being $1,680,000 US. An initial scientific study completed by
the Vladivostok-based Pacific Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography
(TINRO) estimated this sum at $3 million US, but this sum was
challenged by SEIC and reduced to $200,000 US. According to recent
reports, this has once more been reduced, now to $120,000. This money
will be put towards development of a fish farm in Tymovsk district,
central Sakhalin.
Local people are
allowed to fish for most kinds of fish, using rods, at any time during
the year without permissions, but they need permissions and limits in
order to fish with nets. They get priority when limits are allocated
for personal use. Limits are allocated by the local administration.
Indigenous people are also allowed free limits of 100kg of salmon per
person for personal use (not for sale), but this is clearly inadequate
to satisfy daily needs for the whole year. However, the limits are
still the source of some controversy at the local level - especially
when claims are made by people of mixed parentage (metisy) -
as many long-term non-Natives feel that they have an equal right to
limits. Local (unofficial) policies of assimilation are aimed at
reducing claims for privileges.
In summer many Nivkh families travel out to the
bays, especially Nyiva Bay, where they traditionally used to live. They
spend the summer living and fishing on the shores of the bay and along
the spit between the bay and the Okhotsk sea. This activity is becoming
more and more popular, providing the present day Native community with
a new form of summer occupation and the chance to practice and re-learn
traditional forms of natural resource use (cutting and drying fish,
hunting marine mammals, collecting berries, etc.).
Fishing is one of
the tradition occupations of the Nivkhi and is therefore a focus for
those seeking to provide meaningful employment for the local indigenous
populations. Clan enterprises (rodovye khoziaistva) began to
be set up in the early 1990s to provide indigenous families with a form
of subsistence activity, and in an effort to preserve traditional
culture and livelihoods.*10
However, the legislative base for this form of
economic activity is still inadequate and unstable. Rodovye
khoziaistva were initially registered according to existing
legislation as peasant farms (krest'ianskie or fermerskie
khoziaistva), but this form of ownership is not appropriate to
reindeer herding and fishing. The "Temporary regulations on clan
communes, clan and family enterprises of the Northern Native minorities
of Sakhalin region" (09.01.96) do not provide an adequate legal basis
for establishing clan enterprises, as until recently the concept of
clan enterprise did not exist in federal legislation. The Citizens'
Code (Grazhdanskii Kodeks) does not recognise clan
enterprises, and demands all enterprises re-register by the 1st July
1999 as a form of ownership that is acknowledged in the Citizens' Code,
for example as a limited company (obshchestvo ogranichennoi
otvetstvennosti or OOO). The new law "On the Guarantees of the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation" (30.04.99)
does, however, recognise the right of indigenous peoples to traditional
enterprises (Article 8), and at the end of the law is written that
efforts should be made to bring other legislation in line with this law
(Article 16). Work has now started to bring existing legislation in
line with the new indigenous rights law.
Aside from the
instability of the legislative base, many of the clan enterprises
created in the early 1990s are simply unprofitable and cannot resolve
the urgent issue of employment for Native minorities (Roon, 1996). This
is partly due to the Russian tax system that makes development of any
small scale enterprise virtually impossible. Nowadays the only
successful small businesses tend to be trading (buying and re-selling),
which indigenous people are not usually involved in. The clan
enterprise is a form of enterprise more suited to the indigenous
lifestyle and skills. Re-registration means that unproductive clan
enterprises will be closed, which on the one hand simplifies the
situation from the point of view of legislation and taxation, but on
the other hand undermines the initial concept of clan enterprises
(traditional subsistence activity).
There are various different levels of clan
enterprise with very different needs that should be addressed
separately: (i) those who are trying to develop a sustainable economic
enterprise (with or without the help of a non-indigenous "manager" or
partner); (ii) those who are simply living a subsistence lifestyle on
their traditional lands, perhaps close to the place where their
ancestors are buried; (iii) those who are not producing anything but
clinging on to the territory (perhaps in the hope of receiving
compensation from the oil industry); (iv) those where Native people are
managed by "outsiders" who are taking advantage of Native fish limits
and other privileges.
Many of the local
indigenous people in Noglikskii district resent the amount of financing
that has been allocated to clan enterprises through federal programmes
and government privileges. This money was directed through the regional
and local administrations or through the agricultural trading firm
"Aborigen Sakhalina" based in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. However by 1995 the
financing had virtually come to a standstill, money from the regional
to the district budgets is used to cancel local debts to the regional
budget, and so on. "Aborigen Sakhalina" is now struggling to survive
itself.
Locals feel that if the clan enterprises are
receiving so much priority financial support, then they should
ultimately be able to support the larger mass of indigenous people in
the community (by catching fish quotas for those who are unable to
catch their own; giving free fish to poor families; supporting local
organisations or children's groups, etc.) This kind of model has been
known to work in the past (though not in Noglikskii district): in the
early 1990s, several payments of equal sums of money were directed
through the federal programme of support to indigenous peoples to all
the districts of Sakhalin where Native minorities live. In Noglikskii
district, this money was used to build houses for the indigenous
population of the district capital. A block of flats was left
half-built, and most of the Native families that moved in ended up
exchanging their flat for worse accommodation, or even for children's
clothes or vodka. The money sent to Poronaiskii district, on the other
hand, was fed into clan enterprises, in a focused attempt to raise
production. Now these enterprises are still working, and they are able
to support the local Association of Native minorities and certain
aspects of social infrastructure.
According to the
indigenous representative in the Sakhalin regional parliament, A.
Nachetkina, the main problem for the indigenous people of northern
Sakhalin is a lack of fishing limits. In Poronaiskii district they have
sufficient limits for the local traditional enterprises to survive
relatively well. According to Ms. Nachetkina, a fish farm needs to be
established in the north to increase salmon stocks and work should be
undertaken with scientists to increase fish limits.
In Noglikskii district, hunters hunt sable,
wild reindeer, bear. Mostly these are non-indigenous hunters. In 1992
hunting territories were set aside for the northern Native minorities
through "Aborigen Sakhalina." However, only one Native hunter has been
actively using the territory and there is talk of removing the status.
According to the law "On the animal kingdom" indigenous hunters have
priority when giving out licenses, but they have to pay the same price
as other hunters for their licence. Many cannot afford this.
Traditionally the
Nivkh also hunt for seals, and one or two seals are generally hunted
each year. Seal oil and seal fat are used for health and medicinal
purposes, while the meat, oil and fat are used in traditional food
preparations. As reported by the reindeer herders and by Nivkhi there
are fewer seals now than there used to be.
There are 5 families (about 17 herders)
involved in reindeer herding in Noglikskii district; in the absence of
official counts, estimates of the total number of domestic deer in the
district range from 120 - 200 deer. The local reindeer herding
enterprise, "MGP Val" was formed when the former State farm "Olenevod"
("Reindeer Herder" split into two enterprises in the early 1990s (the
other half is now based in Aleksandrovskii district in the west). "MGP
Val" and the infrastructure that it supported (including an electrical
generator, a saw mill, technical equipment, a shop) are now in an
extreme state of disrepair, and as usual in such cases the territory
has been robbed by local scavengers. Now the enterprise exists only on
paper as a branch of "Aborigen Sakhalina," while the herders themselves
are now herding independently and living a subsistence lifestyle
(fishing; hunting birds, bear, wild deer; collecting berries).
In winter the
reindeer herders live in the forest with their deer and hunt wild deer
for meat, both for their own consumption and to sell or exchange
privately (this is not legal, but there are no other ways for the
herders to survive). They do not generally kill their own herds, which
are extremely small. Some herders are now trying to increase the size
of their herds by taming wild reindeer, although sometimes the wild
reindeer lure females away from the domestic herds instead. In summer
the herders move to the coast and use those coastal reindeer pastures
that have remained untouched by fires or the oil industry.
The reindeer herders are very concerned about
the proposed pipelines, but do not have the time to take an active role
in decision-making processes or activism. Their main concern is the
survival of their herd. "If my reindeer die, then I die, too." *11
Local people feel that the reindeer herders should be allowed to get on
with their lifestyles and be left alone as much as possible. To the
herders, the most important thing is the freedom their lifestyle brings
("No-one puts pressure on us") and the health aspects of living close
to nature: one herder gave up his education in Khabarovsk because his
health deteriorated through being away from his own environment. The
herders are also visited by their children, nephews and nieces. The
children thrive in this environment much more so than in the village.
Ironically,
while the herder's "freedom" is an important factor in their sticking
to a lifestyle that may already seem invalid to some, this is only a
perceived freedom, as outsiders make decisions regarding use of their
lands without their participation. Regarding the pipeline, the most
important fact is that the lands that they use for herding are not
allocated to them personally, but to a commercial structure ("MGP Val")
whose director has very little contact with them today, but continues
to make decisions on their behalf. The herders themselves have no
personal voice in negotiations as they are not official land users, nor
do they have rights to compensations, which is of particular concern
for some.
Several young entrepreneurs (both indigenous
and non-indigenous) are now trying to set up projects to revive
reindeer herding in northern Sakhalin by developing another more
profitable type of resource use such as tourism or fishing and feeding
the profits into herding, while employing primarily herders and other
indigenous workers in the support enterprise. Integrated resource use
plans such as these are possible models of sustainable development, and
tentative solutions to the Native employment problem.
A popular idea at
the more official level is that of creating a centralised "trading
station (faktoriia)" to collect production from various forms
of individual or collective enterprise (fishing, reindeer herding,
hunting, collection of NTFPs, souvenir making) and organise its
marketing and distribution, including abroad. This idea relates back to
the former State enterprises (Gospromkhoz, Rybkoop, etc.) that
used to provide this type of organisational infrastructure. In former
years fern, for example, was successfully marketed in Japan. However,
local people are always wary of creating or upholding mediating
structures that are likely to eat up resources while not particularly
helping the smaller enterprises they serve. Local preference is towards
setting up strong enterprises at the local level that could make their
own independent contacts.
There are other possible ways to employ Native
workers, for example in local monitoring programmes related to the oil
developments. Job creation should be aimed towards using the existing
local skills as far as possible and supporting local production.
Apparently no-one from the village of Val is employed in the oil
industry as they do not have the appropriate skills.
It is unlikely
that Noglikskii district will gain significantly from the Sakhalin oil
developments through tax payments, job creation, increased consumer
spending or development of service industries. Nor are they likely to
gain a significant share of payments from the bonuses and the Sakhalin
Development Fund unless they manage to gain influence in the regional
assembly and regional administration. Local populations therefore have
to use different mechanisms to gain a voice in decision-making; to
attract investment in local production and social welfare; and
ultimately to increase local control of resource management in order to
preserve local cultures and livelihoods.
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