Taymyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug

	Physical geography and climate
	Population, economic development and infrastructure
	Indigenous land use and dependence on the environment
	Environmental threats
	Map (1997)
	Article collection

Indigenous land use and dependence on the environment

Due to the large population of wild reindeer in the Taymyr area, reindeer breeding has less importance here than elsewhere in northern Siberia . Still, reindeer breeding has been an important occupation for many native groups, mainly for reasons of breeding transport animals. Migration routes of Dolgan reindeers are considerably shorter than those of their Nenets and Evenk neighbours, and have not been changed after the introduction of collective reindeer farms. Due to the chaotic migration of competing wild reindeer in recent times, most farms have lost their domestic reindeers since the late 1970s. In the remaining eastern Dolgan reindeer breeding region, the Khatanga district, each collective farm has several thousand animals. The winter pastures are in the tundra areas, while the summer pastures are situated in the forest tundra of the main river basin. The number of domestic reindeer in the okrug was fairl constant during the crisis (ca. 49,000 animals in 1996, 42,000 in early 2005) and is now (2006) expected to exceed 52,000.

Wild reindeer hunting has always been an important traditional occupation in Taymyr, and the increase of the wild reindeer population during the last decades has strengthened its significance. The wild reindeer population of Taymyr comprises ca. 500-600,000 animals, i.e. ca. 60% of the entire wild reindeer population of the Russian Federation . The competition is a severe threat to the domestic reindeers. Nganasans gave up reindeer breeding totally in the early 1980s and live since mainly off hunting. Many Dolgans and Enets, and also professional foreign hunters join. Hunting areas traditionally comprise all of Taymyr, although shortage of fuel and spare parts for vehicles now severely restricts the accessible area. Other hunted or trapped animals are wolf, wolverine, polar fox and birds (ptarmigan, geese).

Fishing is of economic importance to all ethnic groups, and is locally carried out in a commercial way (e.g. Dudinka, Khatanga ). Important species are herring (Clupea harengus), Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baeri), white sturgeon (Acipenser ruthenus), white salmon (Stenodus leucichthus nelma), char (Salvelinus alpinus), Siberian cisco (Coregonus sardinella), peled (Coregonus peled), humpback whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus), omul (Coregonus autumnalis), broad whitefish (Coregonus nasus) and shchokur (Russ.).